6 November 2026
Keralam has shifted Excise Commissioner Seeram Sambasiva Rao from the post, and the Additional Excise Commissioner has been given charge in his place.
The change came a few days after Excise Minister M. Liju publicly indicated his disapproval of the grant of a bar licence to a lounge at the Kochi airport.
The government had objected to a similar application earlier, and the minister said the Excise Commissioner should have consulted the government before taking the decision.
Mr. Rao was appointed Excise Commissioner in June 2026, so his tenure in the post lasted about five months.
The Excise Commissioner is the head of the Excise department, which enforces the state liquor and narcotic drugs rules and issues licences.
The post is the top executive office in the department under the Excise Minister.
Post:
Excise Commissioner
Officer shifted:
Seeram Sambasiva Rao
Excise Minister:
M. Liju
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that Seeram Sambasiva Rao was the Excise Commissioner of Keralam who has now been shifted, and that M. Liju holds the Excise portfolio in the state.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
The Kerala Police has revised the personal security of the Leader of the Opposition, Pinarayi Vijayan, from the Z+ category to the Y category.
The change was made by the security review coordination committee, which also reassessed the arrangements for other protected persons including politicians and judicial officers.
Under the revised arrangement he will travel with a pilot vehicle instead of a convoy, and his detail will include two personal security guards (PSG).
The revised classification keeps the Governor and Chief Minister in the highest security category of Z+.
State Ministers, Speaker and Deputy Speaker are placed in the Y category with escort.
The cover each person gets is fixed on an assessment of the existing threat level, and the police have also scaled down or withdrawn the security of several leaders.
Revised category:
Y
Highest category:
Z+
Personal security guards:
2
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that the Governor and the Chief Minister of Kerala hold Z plus cover while State Ministers, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are in the Y category with escort.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
The Kerala High Court has held that the persons named in the microfinance case, among them Vellappally Natesan, can be put on trial without any prior sanction.
A sanction question arises only where the shield given to a public servant for work done as part of official duty is available.
The Court took the view that the dealings complained of here do not fall inside that shield.
With the bar out of the way the investigating agency can take the case forward and place its final report before the trial court.
Vellappally Natesan is the general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, commonly called SNDP Yogam.
The ruling settles a point of criminal procedure and says nothing on whether the charges themselves stand.
Court:
Kerala High Court
Finding:
No sanction required
Organisation:
SNDP Yogam
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that a prior sanction to prosecute is a protection available to public servants for official acts, and the Kerala High Court has held it does not apply in the SNDP microfinance case.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
Justice Murali Purushothaman of the Kerala High Court has directed the Station House Officer of the Ernakulam South Police Station to give adequate protection to a television editor, to her minor son and to her residence.
The petitioner, Aparna Kurup, is Sr. Coordinating Editor with Big TV, and she had approached the Court after receiving threats following a programme she anchored.
The petition described the discussion on the programme as an exercise of the freedom of press under Article 19(1)(a).
The Court said she may alert the Station House Officer to any threat or intimidation, and that the officer must then provide protection.
An interim order had already placed her under the protection of the same officer, and the Court disposed of the plea with this direction.
The ruling is reported as 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 618 in Aparna Kurup v. State of Kerala and Ors.
Court:
Kerala High Court
Citation:
2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 618
Officer directed:
Station House Officer, Ernakulam South
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that press freedom is read into the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, which the petition invoked for protection of a journalist.
Kerala PSCUPSC
Background
Every survey of land and settlement of boundaries in Kerala is done under an Act of 1961. Act 37 of 1961 consolidated, amended and unified the law on the survey of lands and the settlement of boundary disputes. In it survey itself takes in resurvey, so a fresh survey of a village needs no separate law. Government land means land whose proprietary right vests in the Government, and registered land is land in which that right does not. A Survey Officer is appointed by the Government, and a survey is ordered by notification in the Gazette. A registered holder whose land has been lost to sea erosion or the action of river may ask for a survey, and a local authority may ask for its own boundaries to be surveyed and demarcated. A survey mark is any mark or object a Survey Officer uses to fix a point or level. The Survey Officer determines a disputed boundary and records his reasons in writing, and a person aggrieved by that decision may appeal to the authority prescribed. Village Official is defined to include the Village Officer, the Village Assistant, the Adhikari, the Menon, the Potail and the Shanbogue.
Survey includes:
resurvey
Officer who fixes the point:
Survey Officer
Land vested in the Government:
Government land
Why it matters for exams: The point that survey includes resurvey, the definitions in the Act of Government land and registered land, and the ground for a survey after sea erosion are the examinable parts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
Background
The Chief Minister has assured the state assembly that a time-bound project will be framed for the Vembanad lake region, which puts the geography of that lake back in view. The lake takes five rivers, and the question the Speaker put in the House was that it cannot hold that much water. The water then has nowhere to go, so the land around the lake goes under. The Chief Minister placed the problem across south-central Kerala rather than in one district, naming Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha and parts of Ernakulam. The reason he gave is that water is not flowing properly from the lake into the sea and collects in many places instead. Kuttanad and Upper Kuttanad are the worst hit, with farming there destroyed and residents beginning to move out. The House was told that sand removal from rivers and lakes in the State is to begin once the process now under way is complete.
Rivers flowing into the lake:
five rivers
Worst hit farming region:
Kuttanad
Districts named:
Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha
Why it matters for exams: The number of rivers feeding Vembanad, the districts the flooding reaches and the place of Kuttanad around the lake are standing geography facts.
Kerala PSCUPSC