Nominal IndexLeo L.K. and Ors. v. State of Kerala and Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 849Sujatha Krishnan and Ors v. Radha Mohandas and Ors, 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 850A.K.Sukumaran v. Bharath Sanchar Nigam Ltd., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 851Dhinil Babu v. State of Kerala, 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 852Alexander Vadakkedom v. Land Revenue Commissioner and Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 853Abhijith B. v. Bank of Maharashtra...
Nominal Index
Leo L.K. and Ors. v. State of Kerala and Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 849
Sujatha Krishnan and Ors v. Radha Mohandas and Ors, 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 850
A.K.Sukumaran v. Bharath Sanchar Nigam Ltd., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 851
Dhinil Babu v. State of Kerala, 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 852
Alexander Vadakkedom v. Land Revenue Commissioner and Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 853
Abhijith B. v. Bank of Maharashtra and Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 854
Binu Thankappan and Ors. v. State of Kerala, 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 855
Lazar Chakkola And Ors. v. Sudarsanan Pillai.G And Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 856
Smitha P.G. v. State of Kerala and Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 857
Jiby Mathew M v. State of Kerala, 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 858
Binu Surendran and Anr. v. V. Vijayakumar and Ors. and connected cases, 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 1
Praveen@ Poocha Praveen v. State of Kerala, 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 2
Green Roots Nature Conservation Forum and Anr v. Government of India and Ors. and connected case, 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 3
Sidharth K. Bhattathiri v. Union Of India, 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 4
Judgments/ Orders This Week
Case Title: Leo L.K. and Ors. v. State of Kerala and Ors.
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 849
The Kerala High Court has held that the concerned authority must examine at appropriate proceedings, whether the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act) apply to cases where electricity transmission lines are drawn over private land without acquisition of title.
A Division Bench comprising Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Harisankar V. Menon made the observation while dismissing two writ appeals filed by residents of Vizhinjam and Venganoor Villages in Thiruvananthapuram.
Case Title: Sujatha Krishnan and Ors v. Radha Mohandas and Ors
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 850
The Kerala High Court has held that verbal statements of a deceased person relating to blood relationships are relevant facts under Section 32(5) of the Evidence Act, provided they were made before the dispute arose and the declarant had special means of knowledge.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Sathish Ninan and Justice P. Krishna Kumar were considering a preliminary decree in a partition suit that had excluded one daughter from succession of the scheduled properties which originally belonged to one Krishnan, who died intestate on the ground that she was born within four months after the marriage of her parents.
Case Title: A.K.Sukumaran v. Bharath Sanchar Nigam Ltd
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 851
The Kerala High Court has held that disputes relating to eviction of a tenant are not arbitrable even where the lease agreement contains an arbitration clause and that the jurisdiction of the Civil Court cannot be ousted by such non-arbitrable reliefs.
Justice P. Krishna Kumar observed while allowing an Original Petition filed by a retired Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (“BSNL”) employee challenging an order of the Munsiff Court, Ernakulam, which had referred the dispute to arbitration under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ("Arbitration Act").
Case Title: Dhinil Babu v. State of Kerala
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 852
The Kerala High Court granted bail to assistant director Midhil Babu, who is accused of sexually harassing an aspiring young actress in the office of Wayfarer Films Pvt. Ltd., Dulquer Salmaan's production company.
Justice Jobin Sebastian passed the order granting him bail.
Kerala High Court Quashes Rejection Of Arms Licence Renewal Citing Lack Of Reasoned Order
Case Title: Alexander Vadakkedom v. Land Revenue Commissioner and Ors.
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 853
The Kerala High Court has recently quashed orders refusing renewal of an arms licence, holding that the authorities failed to record valid reasons or consider settled legal principles governing such renewals.
Justice Mohammed Nias C.P., allowed a writ petition filed by the petitioner and set aside the orders of the District Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram, and the Land Revenue Commissioner, which had rejected the petitioner's application for renewal of his arms licence.
Case Title: Abhijith B. v. Bank of Maharashtra and Ors.
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 854
The Kerala High Court, in a recent judgment, held that the statutory right of a bank to recover dues from a borrower under the SARFAESI Act becomes absolute once the demand notice is duly served during his lifetime and the mandatory 60-day period expires without the liability discharged.
There was no need for the bank to issue fresh notices under the Act for the legal heirs of the deceased borrower, it was held.
Justice Basant Balaji was considering a plea preferred by the legal heir of a deceased person, who had stood as a guarantor for a loan advanced by a bank to a firm.
Case Title: Binu Thankappan and Ors. v. State of Kerala
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 855
The Kerala High Court, in a recent judgment, held that a police station would fall under the definition of 'house' as per Section 442 of the Indian Penal Code as these are used to custody of property, including official records, arms and ammunitions, etc.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed:
“Section 2(s) of Cr.P.C defines a police station as “any post or place declared generally, or specially by the State Government, to be a police station...Section 5 of the Kerala Police Act, 2011 provides for establishment of police stations while section 6 deals with facilities at police stations. Section 6(2) of the KP Act stipulates that there must be sufficient storage space for the safe keeping of articles in custody, official records and official arms and ammunition and even sufficient facilities for the safe custody of the accused and those in custody. A combined reading of the above statutory provisions makes it explicit that police stations in Kerala can be regarded also as buildings used for the custody of property, thereby satisfying the definition of house under section 442 IPC.”
Case Title: Lazar Chakkola And Ors. v. Sudarsanan Pillai.G And Ors.
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 856
The Kerala High Court dismissed an appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ("Arbitration Act") declining to interfere with an arbitral award dissolving a long-standing partnership and holding that the sale deeds executed between the partners were merely business arrangements, not intended to transfer or create title; consequently, the dispute did not fall outside the ambit of arbitrability, as it involved no rights in rem.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. observed: “Since the sale deeds thus stand as auxiliary to the partnership agreement and devoid of the character of conveyance transferring title, they do not alter the legal relationship inter se the partners or create any independent or enforceable rights in rem. It follows therefrom that the contentions put forth by the appellants regarding the sale deeds being documents affecting rights in rem and the question of claim being barred by limitation do not arise.”
Case Title: Smitha P.G. v. State of Kerala and Ors.
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 857
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday (December 30) refused to grant emergency leave to Jyothi Babu, one of the convicts in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case, to conduct the funeral rites of his cousin.
Justice Jobin Sebastian remarked that no material was produced to substantiate the claim that Babu was the only person capable of conducting the rituals. It was also found that the deceased was not a close relative, warranting grant of emergency leave.
Kerala High Court Grants Bail To Accused Caught In ₹5,000 Land Tax Bribery Trap By Vigilance
Case Title: Jiby Mathew M v. State of Kerala
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 858
In an alleged bribe demand case of ₹5,000 for effecting mutation of property and payment of land tax, the Kerala High Court has granted bail to the accused after noting that the investigation was practically over and the petitioner had been in custody for more than 25 days.
The order was passed by Justice Muralee Krishna S. while allowing a bail application filed by the sole accused in Crime No. VC.22/2025 of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), Ernakulam.
Case Title: Binu Surendran and Anr. v. V. Vijayakumar and Ors. and connected cases
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 1
The Kerala High Court, in a recent decision, directed the Union government to comply with a 2009 Delhi High Court order and decide if the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam) is governed by the Companies Act or the Kerala Non-Trading Companies Act.
The Division Bench comprising Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice M.B. Snehalatha set aside the Single bench judgment, which had set aside a 1974 government order that granted exemption to the Yogam, a company registered under the 1882 Companies Act.
Case Title: Praveen@ Poocha Praveen v. State of Kerala
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 2
The Kerala High Court has held that a reasonable delay in initiating proceedings under Section 15(1)(a) of the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007 (KAAPA) does not snap the statutory “live link” required for externment.
A Division Bench comprising Dr. Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Jobin Sebastian made the observation while dismissing a writ petition challenging an externment order issued against a person classified as a “known goonda”.
Case Title: Green Roots Nature Conservation Forum and Anr v. Government of India and Ors. and connected case
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 3
The Kerala High Court has recently directed the State Government to constitute a multi-departmental committee to regulate and monitor sand and soil removal at the Thottappally Spillway in Alappuzha, stressing that flood-control measures cannot be carried out at the cost of ecological destruction, particularly in sensitive coastal zones and turtle nesting habitats.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. disposed of two connected writ petitions which challenged an order issued by the Alappuzha District Collector under Section 30 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, permitting large-scale removal of sand and vegetation from the Thottappally Spillway to facilitate flood mitigation in the Kuttanad region.
Case Title: Sidharth K. Bhattathiri v. Union Of India
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 4
In an exercise of the supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution, the Kerala High Court recently directed the Railway Claims Tribunal to follow Rules 181 of the Civil Rules of Practice so as to incorporate proper appendices to all its orders.
Justice S. Manu observed that the Tribunal's judgments generally do not contain any attachment showing the witnesses examined and documents marked and due to this, there is difficulty in understanding whether the documents on records were marked or not.
Other Important Developments This Week
Case Title: Suo Motu v. State of Kerala and Ors.
Case No: WP(C) No. 40608 of 2025
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday (30 December) allowed the inclusion of two more officers in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted for the investigation of gold theft from the Dwarapalaka idols and lintels of the Sabarimala temple.
A vacation bench comprising Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. and Justice M.B. Snehalatha allowed the application submitted by the head of the SIT which requested the inclusion of two officers in the rank of Circle Inspector (CI) to the investigation team.
Case Title: A. Padmakumar v. State of Kerala and Roddam Pandurangaiah Naga Govardhan v. State of Kerala
Case No: Bail Appl. 14662/2025 and Bail Appl. 14761/2025 & Bail Appl. 14762/2025
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday (December 30) orally observed that there is an allegation that the investigation in the Sabarimala gold theft case is dragging.
Justice Jobin Sebastian was considering the bail pleas of former Travancore Devaswom Board president A. Padmakumar and that of jeweller Roddam Pandurangaiah Naga Govardhan.
Case Title: Malavika v. State of Kerala and Ors.
Case No: WP(Crl.) 1796/2025
The Kerala High Court on Friday (December 27) sought the State's stand in a plea moved by a de-facto complainant seeking change of the Special Public Prosecutor, who allegedly forced her to settle a criminal case with the accused.
When the case came up for consideration, Justice M.B. Snehalatha gave time to the public prosecutor to get instructions and posted it on January 9 for further consideration.
Centre Notifies Appointment Of Justice Soumen Sen As New Chief Justice Of Kerala High Court
Justice Soumen Sen will join as the new Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court upon the retirement of its present Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar.
The Central Government today issued a notification to transfer Justice Sen from Meghalaya High Court to Kerala High Court. Justice Jamdar will retire on January 9, 2026.
The Kerala High Court has held that children involved in matrimonial custodial litigations, quintessentially require the support of both parents for their mental and physical growth for their upbringing as Model Citizens of the Society.
The vacation bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and P. Krishna Kumar was considering a batch of petitions challenging the custody of minor child by parents.
Case Title: D'cruz Anisha D. v. State of Kerala and Ors.
Case No: WP(C) 41387 of 2025
The Kerala High Court in an interim order on Tuesday (December 30) stayed the appointment of the law officer of Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML) while considering a plea alleging favouritism by the company in its recruitment process.
The plea was preferred by an aspirant to the post and originally, prayers in the plea were for directions to correct the illegality in the conduct of the recruitment process.
Justice K.V. Jayakumar then issued notice in the plea.
Centre Notifies Appointment Of Justice A Muhamed Mustaque As Chief Justice Of Sikkim High Court
The Central Government on Saturday (January 3) notified the appointment of Kerala High Court judge Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque as Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court.