The court observed that the Rs 20-crore fund allocated for the survey from the public exchequer was granted without financial approval or budgetary sanction.
Kerela HC
In a major setback to the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday quashed the government order to conduct a door-to-door survey named ‘Nava Kerala Citizen Response Programme’.
Quashing the government order to conduct the ‘Nava Kerala Citizen Response Programme’, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar VM said that THE government cannot deploy public funds and machinery for a large-scale household survey that resembles a political campaign, ahead of THE 2026 assembly elections.
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The court observed that the Rs 20-crore fund allocated for the survey from the public exchequer was granted without financial approval or budgetary sanction.
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“The government is not debarred from taking welfare measures or undertaking any development or welfare study programme such as Exhibit P1. However, any expenditure incurred must receive financial sanction and comply with the financial rules. We are not questioning the wisdom of the Cabinet to undertake such a study, but funds used for executing and implementing it cannot be spent de hors the financial rules. If such irregularities are brought on record, the court has a duty to declare the utilisation of funds illegal,” the court said.
The court passed the order in a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the government’s survey programme through a government order dated October 10, 2025. The petition was filed by Aloshious Xavier, president of the Kerala Students’ Union, and Ernakulam native Mubas M H. In the PIL, the petitioners had alleged that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government was misusing public funds to conduct the programme ahead of the Assembly elections.
The scheme, ‘Nava Kerala – Citizen Response Programme’, was proposed to collect feedback from households across Kerala on government welfare measures using a network of committees and volunteers.
According to the petition, the proposed survey involved ward-level visits to houses, public spaces, Kudumbashree units and workplaces by volunteers to gather detailed information and opinions about the government’s welfare measures.
The petitioners alleged 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 petitioners also highlighted that Rs 20 crore from the public exchequer had been allocated under a ‘special PR campaign’ for implementing the programme.
The petitioners further stated that the programme could enable large-scale data harvesting that could be misused for electoral purposes and added that conducting such a survey shortly before the 2026 assembly elections would disturb the level-playing field by allowing the ruling party, the Left Democratic Front (LDF), to engage voters through official channels funded by taxpayers.
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