The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the Kerala government to go ahead with the ‘Nava Kerala Citizens Response Programme’ – an initiative aimed at collecting feedback from families on welfare measures through committees and volunteers. The state is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections in April.
Staying the Kerala High Court’s recent ruling quashing the scheme, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalia Bagchi passed the interim order while issuing notice on the state’s appeal. However, the Court directed the State to submit, at an appropriate stage, a report detailing the expenditures incurred on the programme.
During the hearing, the bench questioned the basis of the Supreme Court’s intervention. “Why can’t the state discover the effects of its plans and how they can be improved? What’s wrong with that?” He asked the bench, which accepted the state’s appeal against the Supreme Court’s February 17 ruling.
Senior human rights advocate Kapil Sibal, who represents the Kerala government, said not even “a single paise” was paid to the volunteers involved in the operation, in the face of allegations of misuse of public funds.
Senior advocate Narendra Hooda, who represented the petitioners before the Supreme Court, said the program was actually a political PR campaign carried out at state expense ahead of the elections. He referred to the statements allegedly made by the CPI (Maoist) State Minister about the initiative even before its official notification, alleging that party workers were deployed to visit families under the guise of a government scheme.
“The trick is that they send party workers to every house at government expense. More than that $20 crores, which was not part of the Appropriation Bill, has been allocated for this purpose. This is a propaganda scheme for the party on the eve of elections on government spending. “This is the harsh conclusion reached by the Supreme Court,” Hooda submitted.
Despite objections, the Supreme Court stayed the Supreme Court’s decision. “Issuance of notice. In the meantime, the operation of the judgment dated February 17, 2026 remains suspended. The State shall at an appropriate stage submit a report with respect to the expenses incurred,” the court recorded in its order.
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The ‘Nava Kerala Citizens Response Programme’ was launched through a government order dated October 10, 2025. It envisages forming committees and engaging volunteers to spread awareness about government schemes and collect feedback from citizens at the household level.
The scheme was challenged in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it amounted to a sentencing propaganda campaign, allegedly using party workers and public funds in violation of financial norms and business rules.
The Kerala High Court had allowed two public interest lawsuits and ordered the state to suspend all further steps related to the programme, deeming the use of funds allocated to the Department of Information and Public Relations to be legally unsustainable. She said the state government cannot use public funds and machines to conduct a large-scale household survey resembling a political campaign before the Assembly elections.
