Overview
- A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice on Kerala’s appeal and stayed the High Court’s February 17 order.
- The State must file a status report detailing expenditure for the programme, which was budgeted under a ‘Special PR Campaign’ head at about ₹20 crore.
- Chief Justice Kant questioned objections to assessing welfare schemes’ impact, as the court allowed the outreach to proceed pending further hearing.
- Kerala’s counsel Kapil Sibal said no payments have been made to volunteers drawn from the government’s Social Volunteer Force portal.
- The Kerala High Court had found violations of the Rules of Business and financial norms, after petitioners alleged the exercise was a party PR effort with early access to details by the CPI(M) secretary.