16 October 2026
Former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has petitioned the Supreme Court against a Kerala High Court direction to register an FIR against him, his daughter Veena T and Mohammed Riyas in the CMRL-Exalogic matter.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on 16 October 2026 and sought an urgent hearing.
The Chief Justice indicated that the case could be listed on 26 or 27 October, after the Dussehra break, or before a special bench during the vacation if judges are available.
A single bench of the Kerala High Court had directed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to register an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a writ petition filed by K.M. Shajahan, holding a preliminary inquiry unnecessary once the Enforcement Directorate furnished information under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
A Division Bench of the High Court declined to entertain the appeal filed by the three, holding that an accused has no right to be heard before an FIR is registered and that a writ under Article 226 can seek quashing of an FIR before cognisance is taken.
Possible listing dates:
26 or 27 October
Provision under which the ED furnished information:
Section 66(2) of the PMLA
Why it matters for exams: The item fixes the hierarchy of remedies, the role of Article 226 and the statutory route by which the ED's information triggers an FIR.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
PMLA Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 — The central anti-money-laundering law; its Section 66(2) lets the ED share information with other authorities.
Article 226 Article 226 of the Constitution — The provision under which a High Court issues writs, including for quashing an FIR.
16 October 2026
The Kerala Public Service Commission's notifications page lists its most recent Extraordinary Gazette as the one dated 30/09/2026.
That gazette carries notifications from Category No. 151/2026 to Category No. 161/2026.
The last date for applying against this gazette is 04-11-2026.
The previous Extraordinary Gazette, dated 31/08/2026, carried Category No. 130/2026 to Category No. 150/2026, with 07-10-2026 as the last date.
The Commission issues its notifications through such gazettes, each batch identified by a continuous run of category numbers.
Gazette date:
30/09/2026
Category numbers:
CAT.NO.151/2026 TO CAT.NO.161/2026
Last date:
04-11-2026
Why it matters for exams: Candidates are examined on how the Commission notifies posts and on reading category numbers and last dates correctly.
Kerala PSC
In plain words
KPSC Kerala Public Service Commission — The constitutional body that recruits for State services in Kerala.
Extraordinary Gazette Extraordinary Gazette notification — A gazette issue brought out outside the regular schedule, used by the Commission to publish batches of notifications.
16 October 2026
The Directorate of Higher Secondary Education cancelled the Higher Secondary Improvement Examinations in Idukki district on Friday, 16 October 2026, although they were being held elsewhere in the State that day.
Officials said the examinations will be held on another day in Idukki.
The CPM district committee had called a 12-hour hartal from 6 am over Ecologically Sensitive Area issues and policies affecting farmers.
Its demands included greater clarity in the cadastral map published in connection with ESA, dropping the move to declare the Cardamom Hill Reserve area as forest land, withdrawing orders converting plantations and farmland into wildlife sanctuaries, and scrapping plans to create elephant corridors.
Educational institutions, commercial establishments and private buses stayed shut, while essential services, milk supply, newspaper distribution, vehicles for weddings and cremations, tourists visiting Idukki from other districts and sports meets were exempted.
Police said limited KSRTC services ran, with personnel deployed at major centres across the district.
Hartal duration:
12 hours from 6 am
Examination affected:
Higher Secondary Improvement Examination
District:
Idukki
Why it matters for exams: The item links an examination authority's decision to the ESA question, the Cardamom Hill Reserve and elephant corridors, all recurring Kerala geography and environment topics.
Kerala PSC
In plain words
ESA Ecologically Sensitive Area — An area notified for restrictions on land use to protect a fragile ecosystem.
Cadastral map Cadastral map — A survey map showing the boundaries and ownership of individual land parcels.
16 October 2026
The Kerala Public Service Commission's Extraordinary Gazette dated 30/09/2026 lists ten notifications covering Cat.No.151/2026 to Cat.No.161/2026, with Cat.No.157 and 158 sharing one notification.
Cat.No.151/2026 is for Draftsman Grade-II in the Kerala Ports service, Hydrographic Survey Wing, and Cat.No.156/2026 is for Draftsman Grade-II / Town Planning Surveyor Grade-II in the LSG Department, Group IV Planning Wing.
Cat.No.153/2026 and Cat.No.154/2026 are both for Forest Boat Driver in the Forest and Wildlife Department, the first as Part-I and the second as Part II-By Transfer.
Cat.No.159/2026 is for Police Constable Driver and Woman Police Constable Driver in Kerala Police.
Cat.No.155/2026 is for Higher Secondary School Teacher-Statistics and Cat.No.157 and 158/2026 for Higher Secondary School Teacher (Jr.) Arabic, both in Kerala Higher Secondary Education.
Cat.No.152/2026, Cat.No.160/2026 and Cat.No.161/2026 are all for Peon/Watchman from among the part-time employees in KSFE Ltd. The last date for the whole range is 04-11-2026.
Notifications in the gazette:
10
Category range:
Cat.No.151/2026 to 161/2026
Last date:
04-11-2026
Posts in KSFE Ltd.:
Peon/Watchman
Why it matters for exams: Candidates must read a gazette correctly: which department a post belongs to, and that one category number can be split into Part-I and By Transfer streams.
Kerala PSC
In plain words
KSFE Kerala State Financial Enterprises Limited — A State-owned non-banking financial company in Kerala, best known for its chitty business.
LSG Department Local Self Government Department — The Kerala department that administers panchayats and municipalities and their planning wings.
16 October 2026
Five of the ten notifications in the Kerala Public Service Commission's Extraordinary Gazette dated 30/09/2026 are marked as Special Recruitment or NCA vacancies.
Cat.No.155/2026, Higher Secondary School Teacher-Statistics in Kerala Higher Secondary Education, is marked SR for ST Only.
Cat.No.156/2026, Draftsman Grade-II / Town Planning Surveyor Grade-II in the LSG Department, Group IV Planning Wing, is marked SR for SC/ST.
Cat.No.157&158/2026, Higher Secondary School Teacher (Jr.) Arabic, is marked VII NCA-SC&ST.
Cat.No.159/2026, Police Constable Driver/ Woman Police Constable Driver in Kerala Police, is marked I NCA-LC/AI, while Cat.No.160/2026 is IV NCA-ST and Cat.No.161/2026 is VIII NCA-ST, both Peon/Watchman in KSFE Ltd.
All of them carry the same last date, 04-11-2026.
Notifications marked SR or NCA:
5 of 10
Tag on Cat.No.155/2026:
SR for ST Only
Tag on Cat.No.159/2026:
I NCA-LC/AI
Why it matters for exams: Reading the SR and NCA tags correctly decides whether a candidate is eligible at all, and the tags themselves are asked about in Kerala PSC general papers.
Kerala PSC
In plain words
NCA NCA vacancy — A vacancy readvertised for a reserved community when no candidate from it was available in the earlier recruitment.
SR Special Recruitment — A recruitment opened only to candidates of specified communities, here Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
LC/AI Latin Catholics / Anglo-Indians — A reservation category in Kerala, written together in the Commission's notifications.
Background
The Kalladi-Anakkampoyil tunnel road, meant to give Wayanad an alternative to the Thamarassery Ghat road down into this district, has had its construction suspended for three months after a landslide at its Wayanad entrance.
Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, lies along Kerala's northern Malabar coast and was once the capital of the Zamorin kingdom.
It grew into an important centre of Indian Ocean trade, with merchants travelling there for spices and other goods.
Kappad Beach in the district is associated with Vasco da Gama's arrival on the Malabar coast in 1498.
Beypore is a historic port known for traditional wooden shipbuilding and its maritime links.
Thamarassery Churam is the ghat road of winding bends that climbs from the district towards the Western Ghats, and Thusharagiri Waterfalls lies in its green interior.
The Pazhassi Raja Museum serves as the district's museum and art gallery, and Calicut International Airport at Karipur is roughly 25 to 30 kilometres from the city.
Malabar cuisine - Kozhikode biryani, pathiri, seafood dishes and the city's famous halwa - is what the district is loved for, and its historic markets, music, festivals and crafts add to its distinctive character.
Also known as:
Calicut
Former capital of:
The Zamorin kingdom
Vasco da Gama's landing place:
Kappad Beach, 1498
Historic shipbuilding port:
Beypore
Ghat road:
Thamarassery Churam
Airport:
Calicut International Airport, Karipur, about 25-30 km from the city
Why it matters for exams: Kappad, the Zamorin and Beypore are the three Kozhikode facts an examiner reaches for first.
Kerala PSCSSC
In plain words
Zamorin Samoothiri, the ruler of Calicut — The title of the hereditary ruler whose capital was Kozhikode.
Churam Ghat road or mountain pass — A road of hairpin bends climbing a Western Ghats slope.
Background
As the State reworks its housing scheme for fishing families and presses the Centre on deaths at sea, the district that runs two fishing harbours is worth knowing.
Kollam, the erstwhile Quilon, is a southern district of Kerala about 70 km north of Thiruvananthapuram, with the Arabian sea on the west and Tamil Nadu on the east.
Its district area is 2491 sq km and its district population 25,84,118, which makes it one of the more densely peopled districts of India.
Administratively it is composed of two revenue divisions, Kollam and Punalur, with three taluks each under them, and the headquarters is at Kollam City.
The heart land of the district is veined by the Ashtamudi lake, a massive multi-branched water body, which with the Kollam canal gives Kollam a place of prominence in the waterway systems of the country.
Its eastern side carries a considerably large forest cover with eco-tourism projects such as Shenduruni, Thenmala and Palaruvi, and the annual rainfall is 270 cms.
Kollam has been the centre of the cashew industry in Kerala from the time of the Portuguese in the 16th century, and with hundreds of working cashew factories it continues to be the largest processed cashew exporter in India.
Neendakara and Thangasseri are its two fishing harbours and ports, and the Thangasseri light house, the St. Thomas Fort and cemetery built by the Portuguese, Thevally Palace and Cheenakkottaram mark its colonial past.
Former name:
Quilon
District area:
2491 Sq.Km.
District population:
25,84,118
Revenue divisions:
Kollam and Punalur, with three taluks each
Annual rainfall:
270 Cms.
Fishing harbours and ports:
Neendakara and Thangasseri
Why it matters for exams: Kollam's revenue divisions, the Ashtamudi lake and its rank in the cashew trade are the facts Kerala PSC asks about this district.
Kerala PSCSSC
In plain words
Revenue division Group of taluks under a Deputy Collector — An administrative layer between the district and the taluk in Kerala's revenue system.
Background
Kerala presents its State honours for letters and the arts this month, so it is worth being exact about a Kerala ritual the world has already recorded as living heritage.
Mudiyettu is a ritual theatre and dance drama of Kerala, inscribed for India on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
It retells a myth about a battle between the goddess Kali and the demon Darika: the sage Narada asks Shiva to restrain Darika, who cannot be defeated by mortals, and Shiva decrees that Kali will kill him.
It is a community ritual in which the entire village participates, performed after the summer harvest, with villagers gathering at the temple early in the morning on a set day.
The performers fast and pray to purify themselves, then draw a large image of Kali, the kalam, on the temple floor with coloured powders, and the goddess's spirit is invoked.
It is performed yearly in Bhagavati Kavus, the goddess's temples, in villages along the Chalakkudy Puzha, the Periyar and the Moovattupuzha rivers.
Each caste takes part through mutual cooperation, which builds a shared identity and bonds within the community.
Elders and senior performers pass the tradition on by bringing younger people in as apprentices during performances, transmitting the community's values, ethics, moral codes and aesthetic norms.
Country of inscription:
India
Myth enacted:
The battle between the goddess Kali and the demon Darika
Season:
After the summer harvest
Venue:
Bhagavati Kavus, the goddess's temples
Rivers along which it is performed:
Chalakkudy Puzha, Periyar and Moovattupuzha
Floor drawing:
Kalam, a large image of Kali in coloured powders
Why it matters for exams: Kerala's second element on the intangible heritage list, its kalam and the rivers it belongs to are exactly what a culture question asks.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Kalam Floor drawing in coloured powders — The large image of the goddess drawn on the temple floor before the performance.
Bhagavati Kavu Grove temple of the goddess — The village shrine of the goddess where Mudiyettu is staged each year.
Background
These safeguards are in the news this week because the Kerala High Court, in a judgment reported on 12 October 2026, set aside a detention under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007 and ordered the detenue's release, holding that supplying the order only in Malayalam to a man who knew only Kannada violated Article 22(5).
Article 22(5) of the Constitution requires the detaining authority to communicate to the person the grounds on which the detention order has been made and to give him the earliest opportunity of making a representation against it.
The Kerala High Court read this, with Section 7(2) of that State Act, to mean that the order and the documents relied on must be supplied in a language the detenue knows, and that an oral explanation is not enough.
The reading rests on a line of authority that includes the Constitution Bench decision in Harikisan of 1962, Hadibandhu Das of 1969 and Lallubhai Jogibhai Patel of 1981.
A detention under the State Act of 2007 is ordered by the District Magistrate, confirmed by the State Government and may be extended, in that case by six months.
A failure in the procedure makes the detention itself unsustainable, as the Court showed by setting aside both the original and the continuation order.
Provision on communicating grounds:
Article 22(5)
Constitution Bench authority relied on:
Harikisan (1962)
Why it matters for exams: Article 22's distinction between ordinary arrest and preventive detention, and the duty to communicate grounds, are set questions in polity papers.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Preventive detention Preventive detention — Detention ordered to prevent an apprehended act, not as punishment for a proved offence.
Background
This institute is in the news in Kerala this week alongside the State's current recruitment cycle, because its own site, last updated on October 15, 2026, carries a fresh run of research advertisements from Adv. 09/2026 to Adv. 16/2026.
BRIC-RGCB announces on its own pages that Dr Beena Pillai has joined as its new Director.
The institute's current notifications cover Project Research Scientist-I (Non-Medical) under Adv. 09/2026, 10/2026 and 11/2026, Project Technical Support-III under Adv. 12/2026, Junior Research Fellow under Adv. 13/2026 and Research Associate-I under Adv. 16/2026, besides a rolling advertisement for faculty positions.
Among the findings it reports are nanopore sensors developed for the early detection of Parkinson's disease, a cancer drug found to weaken a deadly pneumonia pathogen, and work on infected young blood cells that may help malaria parasites survive treatment.
The institute has an Akkulam campus, and it gives Young Investigator Awards and Student Merit Awards.
It also lists the 2nd National Symposium on Mass Spectrometry-Based Omics in Disease Biology, NSMS 2027.
Director:
Dr Beena Pillai
Campus named:
Akkulam
Advertisement for Junior Research Fellow:
Adv. 13/2026
Awards given by the institute:
Young Investigator Awards and Student Merit Awards
Why it matters for exams: The head of a national research institute in Kerala, and the diseases its work addresses, are the kind of science-and-persons pairing an examiner uses.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Nanopore sensor Nanopore sensor — A sensing device that reads molecules one at a time as they pass through a pore only nanometres wide.
Research Associate-I Research Associate-I — An entry grade of post-doctoral research position in Indian research institutes.