Image used for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The Kerala government on Wednesday (February 18, 2026) moved the Supreme Court against the state high court’s decision to stay the ‘Nava Keralam Citizen Response Programme’, a public awareness and development feedback initiative to solicit suggestions from the public for development and welfare measures.
A special leave motion filed by the state government, represented by advocate CK Sasi, said the High Court had intervened in matters of public order not only to stop the program approved by the state council of ministers, but to further quash subsequent financial sanctions and budget proceedings.
“The Supreme Court has interfered with the government’s power to implement governance and development programs and seriously damaged the state’s ability to take policy decisions regarding public expenditure, thus disrupting the constitutional balance between the executive and the judiciary,” the petition said.
The Kerala government said the program was planned as a time-bound nationwide exercise to be conducted from January 2026 to February 2026 to gather public opinion and suggestions on development and social programs through a multi-level mechanism involving state, district and local level coordination as well as volunteers selected from the Social Volunteer Force portal.
The state said that around ₹20 crore under the ‘Special PR Campaign’ budget has been earmarked for the implementation of the programme. The financial sanction for the program was carried out by the department for information and public relations in October last year, and subsequently in November 2025, a procedure was issued on the preliminary allocation of the budget and expenditure components.
The petitioners allege that the funds were misused
The intervention of the High Court was on the basis of a written proposal which claimed that the program violates the rules of business under Article 166(3) of the Constitution to the extent that the subject matter of the program relating to the collection of development inputs and the evaluation of social welfare programs falls under the purview of ministries and not the Department of Information and Public Relations.
The petitioners alleged that the allocation of ₹20 crore constituted diversion or misuse of public funds and required legislative sanction under Articles 202 to 205 of the Constitution.
The state countered that the program had been approved by the government and that administrative and financial sanctions had been granted along with a detailed budget process.
It argued that the Department of Information and Public Relations was responsible for implementing the program. “The Supreme Court failed to recognize that the Rules of Business are internal executive instructions intended for the convenient transaction of government business and are directory in nature. Failure to comply with such internal division of business does not ipso facto invalidate the executive action,” argued the appeal to the high court.
The Supreme Court failed to appreciate that the provisions of the Kerala Budget Manual and other internal fiscal norms are executive directives without the force of law and cannot be treated as binding provisions, the alleged violation of which would invalidate the government’s action, the petition said.
He stated that internal fiscal guidelines cannot be elevated to enforceable law by a court on judicial review.
Published – 18 Feb 2026 23:03 IST