5 November 2026
The Supreme Court declined to interfere with the examination debarment dispute of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit.
It requested the Kerala High Court single judge to take up the writ petition and dispose of it expeditiously.
The Court recorded the university's undertaking that it would hold a special examination if the students win before the High Court.
Sixteen students stand suspended: six PhD scholars, seven postgraduate students and three undergraduates.
Ten of them were to write semester examinations and they missed the first-semester paper.
A High Court Division Bench had earlier set aside a Single Bench interim order that let them pay examination fees and sit the papers.
The university has its campus at Kalady.
Students suspended:
16
Sent back to:
Kerala High Court Single Bench
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit has its campus at Kalady, and that the Supreme Court remitted the suspended students' examination dispute to the Kerala High Court Single Bench with an undertaking for a special examination.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
SSUS Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit — The State university for Sanskrit and the humanities, with its campus at Kalady.
6 November 2026
Justice Murali Purushothaman has read Rule 167(7) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 as a provision that works only forward in time.
That sub-rule entered the Rules through the Central Motor Vehicles (Eleventh Amendment) Rules, 2020, taking effect from October 1, 2020.
A car owner had repaid a Bank of Baroda loan and asked for the hypothecation entry to be cancelled.
The Regional Transport Officer refused, because the vehicle stood blacklisted over challans that had stayed unpaid beyond ninety days.
Those challans related to violations between 2015 and 2019, all of them before the rule existed.
The Court said a substantive provision that creates a new restriction cannot be stretched backwards without clear legislative intent.
The Regional Transport Officer, Ernakulam has been told to process the application without counting challans issued before October 1, 2020.
The judgment is reported as 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 614.
Rule read prospectively:
Rule 167(7), Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989
In force from:
October 1, 2020
Citation:
2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 614
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that Rule 167(7) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, inserted by the Eleventh Amendment Rules of 2020, operates only from October 1, 2020 and Rule 167(5) sets a ninety-day limit for disposing of a challan.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
VAHAN VAHAN portal — The Union road transport ministry's national vehicle registration database, on which a vehicle can be flagged.
6 November 2026
Agriculture Minister T. Siddique has announced a State Honey Mission to put Kerala's beekeeping on a scientific footing and raise farmers' incomes. He made the announcement while laying the foundation stone of a common facility centre being set up in Thiruvananthapuram by the Federation of Indigenous Apiculturists (FIA). The centre will house a modern honey processing plant and a quality testing laboratory, giving beekeepers better processing and marketing support. A high-level meeting of officials and experts this month will prepare a detailed action plan for the mission. Beekeeping in tribal areas and the collection of honey from forests will get special attention. The mission will draw on the support of the State Horticulture Mission, the National Bee Board and NABARD, and on funding from their schemes.
Mission:
സംസ്ഥാന ഹണി മിഷന്
Announced by:
ടി. സിദ്ദിഖ്
Facility built by:
FIA
Why it matters for exams: A new State mission and the bodies behind it (National Bee Board, NABARD) are standard scheme questions; beekeeping is apiculture.
Kerala PSC
In plain words
NABARD National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development — The apex development bank for agriculture and rural credit in India.
Apiculture Apiculture — The rearing of honey bees for honey and wax.
5 November 2026
Kerala's reconstituted State Planning Board met for the first time in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, with Chief Minister V D Satheesan in the chair, and approved the approach paper for the 15th Five-Year Plan. The paper sets out to lift the State's GSDP from Rs 16 lakh crore today to Rs 28 lakh crore by 2032, by raising yearly growth from about 5% to 7%. To move the economy away from dependence on remittances, it proposes a "partnership economy" in which private firms, cooperative societies and non-resident Keralites invest alongside the State. A partnership cell will design projects above Rs 10 crore, and a revolving fund of Rs 100 crore will pay for project preparation and studies. The Board also agreed to start a Yuva Keralam Mission modelled on Kudumbashree. Unlike earlier plans, the 15th Plan is to be carried out in project mode. Board vice-chairman K M Chandrasekhar attended the meeting.
GSDP target:
Rs 28 lakh crore
Plan:
15th Five-Year Plan
New mission:
Yuva Keralam Mission
Revolving fund:
Rs 100 crore
Why it matters for exams: The Kerala State Planning Board is chaired by the Chief Minister and drafts the State's Five-Year Plans; the 15th Plan's targets and the new Yuva Keralam Mission are likely Kerala PSC material.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
GSDP Gross State Domestic Product — The total value of goods and services produced within a State in a year.
Approach paper Approach paper — The document that sets the goals and strategy of a Five-Year Plan before the full plan is drafted.
Background
The Kerala Fishermen's Welfare Fund Act, 1985 is Kerala Act 30 of 1985, and it provides for the constitution of a welfare fund to promote the welfare of fishermen in the State. The Kerala Fishermen's Welfare Fund Board is constituted under Section 7 of that Act and runs the fund, while Section 4 provides for the contribution payable into it. The Act reaches beyond fishermen to the allied worker — a person who earns a living mainly from fishery related activities but does not fall within the definition of fisherman in the Kerala Fisherman's Welfare Societies Act, 1980. Beach workers and small-scale fish distributors are counted as allied workers, and so are fish curers, peeling workers and those in small processing plants, where no other statutory welfare scheme covers them. A beach worker is defined by the work done at a fishing harbour or landing centre, from unloading fish from fishing crafts to mending and repairing nets. The Act defines fish widely, taking in prawn, lobster, shellfish, clam and squid, and it defines a dealer to include a commission agent or broker. The Director of Fisheries for the State is one of the officers the Act names. The Fisheries department has asked pension holders under the Board to finish Aadhaar authentication, reporting that of 73,657 beneficiaries, 59,061 have completed it so far.
Act:
Kerala Fishermen's Welfare Fund Act, 1985 (Act 30 of 1985)
Board constituted under:
Section 7
Pension beneficiaries under the Board:
73,657
Aadhaar authentication completed:
59,061
Why it matters for exams: The Kerala Fishermen's Welfare Fund Act, 1985, the Board constituted under Section 7 and the definition of an allied worker are standing Kerala PSC questions on welfare boards.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Allied worker A person living mainly off fishery related work who is not a fisherman under the 1980 Act — Beach workers, fish curers and peeling workers are examples.
Contribution The sum payable into the welfare fund — Section 4 of the Act provides for it.
Background
Kerala Tourism calls the President's Trophy Boat Race one of the most celebrated snake boat races in Kerala; it is rowed on the Ashtamudi Lake at Kollam. The course begins at the water column near the Thevally Palace and ends at the houseboat terminal, a stretch of 1250 metres of the lake. The rowers pull together to the beat of boat songs, and thousands line the banks to watch. Kerala Tourism has listed this year's race for the twenty-first of this month, and its calendar notes that dates fixed by the Malayalam calendar and local custom can shift. The Tourism Department also runs the Champions Boat League, a series of races at venues across the State. A League race was rowed at Thazhathangadi in Kottayam, where the winning crew finished the course in 3 minutes 21.227 seconds. Besides the big chundan, the League has its own classes for the Iruttukuthi and Churulan boats, with separate winners in each.
Venue:
Ashtamudi Lake, Kollam
Length of the course:
1250 m
Start point:
Water column near Thevally Palace
Winning time at Thazhathangadi:
3 minutes 21.227 seconds
Why it matters for exams: The President's Trophy Boat Race, the Ashtamudi Lake at Kollam, the 1250 metre course from Thevally and the Champions Boat League are standing Kerala sports and geography questions.
Kerala PSCSSC
In plain words
Chundan vallam The long snake boat raced in Kerala's backwaters — The biggest class of racing boat in the State.
Champions Boat League The Tourism Department's series of boat races — It is rowed at the traditional race venues across Kerala.
Background
The Kalpathi Ratholsavam, known also as the Chariot Festival, is the annual festival of the Sree Viswanatha Swamy Temple at Kalpathi in Palakkad. The temple is dedicated to Lord Viswanatha, a form of Shiva, and to Goddess Visalakshi, and its history runs back more than seven centuries. Incredible India records it as an annual celebration held in November, drawing devotees and visitors in large numbers. It opens with Vedic ceremonies and the chanting of scriptures, with traditional performances and music through the village in the early days. Its high point is the procession of large wooden temple cars, drawn through the streets of the old agraharam at Kalpathi. On the closing day the chariots are brought together in front of the main temple, which marks the ceremonial end of the festival. Kerala Tourism has listed this year's Ratholsavam for the fourteenth to the sixteenth of this month, and names the coming together of the chariots on the sixteenth as the day to be there.
Temple:
Sree Viswanatha Swamy Temple, Kalpathi
District:
Palakkad
Deities:
Lord Viswanatha and Goddess Visalakshi
Age of the temple:
More than 7 centuries
Why it matters for exams: The Sree Viswanatha Swamy Temple at Kalpathi, its Ratholsavam and the old agraharam at Kalpathi are standing Kerala art and culture questions.
Kerala PSCSSC
In plain words
Agraharam A traditional street settlement of Brahmin houses around a temple — Kalpathi's agraharam is a heritage street in Palakkad town.
Ratholsavam Chariot festival — Decorated temple cars are drawn through the streets.
Background
The Health department is launching Golden Goal, a comprehensive emergency care scheme meant to save the lives of people seriously injured in road accidents by getting them the right treatment in time. The aim is to read the nature and the severity of an injury correctly and to reach the most suitable hospital as fast as possible. In its first phase the scheme is being tried in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha. The Integrated Command and Control Centre is to be widened so that it coordinates 108 ambulances together with the government ambulances under the Health department and the Medical Education department. Later phases are to bring private ambulances, private hospitals and voluntary organisations into the same network. Tracking, mapping and a computer-based dispatch system are to send the nearest suitable ambulance to the spot soonest. A patient's condition and injury details go from the ambulance to the control centre and on to the hospital, so that doctors and trauma teams can prepare before the patient arrives. Emergency treatment is assured at government hospitals and at the private hospitals that come under KASP and PM-JAY.
Ambulance service coordinated:
108
Pilot districts:
തിരുവനന്തപുരം, കൊല്ലം, ആലപ്പുഴ
Centre to be widened:
ഇന്റഗ്രേറ്റഡ് കമാൻഡ് ആൻഡ് കൺട്രോൾ സെന്റർ
Private hospitals covered through:
PM-JAY
Why it matters for exams: Golden Goal is the Health department's emergency care network, and its Integrated Command and Control Centre, its three pilot districts and its link to KASP and PM-JAY are the durable facts an exam can ask.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
ട്രോമാ ചികിത്സാ സംഘം Trauma care team — The hospital team readied before an injured patient arrives.
ഡിസ്പാച്ച് സംവിധാനം Computer-based dispatch system — It picks the nearest suitable ambulance for the spot.
Background
The dispute the Supreme Court has now sent back to a Single Bench had already been through a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court.
Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S set aside a Single Judge's interim order of October 30, 2026 that had let sixteen suspended students sit the university examinations.
The Bench found that the writ petition pleaded no basis for anyone other than the PhD scholars to appear for the examination.
It recorded that there was a total lack of pleading on the entitlement of the other petitioners.
Because the pleadings did not make out a strong prima facie case under the standards laid down by the Supreme Court, the interim order could not stand.
The appeal was filed by Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit.
The point of practice is that interim relief in a writ petition rests on what the petition itself pleads.
Interim order set aside:
Dated October 30, 2026
Students covered:
16
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that interim relief in a writ petition depends on the pleadings in the petition, and that a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court set aside an interim order for lack of pleading.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Prima facie case Prima facie case — The first test a court applies before granting interim relief, judged from the pleadings.