'Resembles Political Campaign Ahead Of Assembly Poll': Kerala High Court Quashes State Govt's 'Nava Kerala – Citizen Response Program'
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: The Kerala High Court has quashed the State government’s order launching the ‘Nava Kerala – Citizen Response Program‘, a scheme proposed to collect feedback from households across Kerala on government welfare measures, Bar and Bench reported.
The court, while quashing the initiative observed that the government cannot deploy public funds and machinery for a large scale household survey that resembles a political campaign, especially ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
The ‘Nava Kerala – Citizen Response Program‘, is done using a network of committees and volunteers. While hearing the two two public interest litigations petitions (PIL), division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar VM observed that the Rs 20-crore fund from the public exchequer, which was allocated for the survey, was done without financial approval or budgetary sanction.
The high court thus set aside the state government’s order restraining it from proceeding with the exercise.
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The PILs had challenged the government’s survey programme launched through government order dated October 10, 2025, and the order was issued by the State’s Information and Public Relations department. The PILs were filed by district panchayat member Mubas MH and Kerala Student Union (KSU) President Aloshious Xavier.
The petitions challenged the government’s initiative noting that it is involved ward level visits to houses, public spaces, Kudumbashree units and workplace by volunteers to gather detailed information and opinions about the government’s welfare measures, highlighting that such door-to-door outreach in the immediate run up to assembly elections amounted to a state sponsored political exercise disguised as a development study.
The petition also underlined the huge expense for the public exchequer, which was allocated under a ‘special PR campaign’ for implementing the program.
