Government of Kerala

Legislative branch

The legislature comprises the governor and the legislative assembly, which is the highest political organ in the state. The governor has the power to summon the assembly or to close the same. All members of the legislative assembly are directly elected, normally once in every five years by the eligible voters who are above 18 years of age. The current assembly consists of 140 elected members and one member nominated by the governor from the Anglo-Indian community. The elected members select one of its own members as its chairman who is called the speaker. The speaker is assisted by the deputy speaker who is also elected by the members. The conduct of a meeting in the house is the responsibility of the speaker.

The main function of the assembly is to pass laws and rules. Every bill passed by the house has to be finally approved by the governor before it becomes applicable.

The normal term of the legislative assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first meeting. But while a proclamation of state of emergency is in operation, the said period will be extended by Parliament by Laws for a period not exceeding one year at a time.

Judicial branch

The judiciary of Kerala functions as an independent branch of the state government, in accordance with the Constitution of India. The apex court in the state is the High Court of Kerala, which has jurisdiction over the state of Kerala and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep. It is located at Kochi.

The High Court is headed by the Chief Justice of Kerala, and comprises 35 permanent judges and 12 additional judges appointed by the President of India in consultation with the Chief Justice of India and the Governor of Kerala. Below the High Court, the judicial system includes district and subordinate courts, various special courts and tribunals for specific cases.

Kerala has 14 district and sessions courts, each headed by a Principal District and Sessions Judge. All these judicial districts are located in district headquarters, except at Manjeri, Thodupuzha, and Thalassery. These District Courts are vested with original, appellate, and revisional jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters.

Special courts and tribunals exist, including special courts for the trial of cases registered by the NIA, CBI, and Kerala Vigilance, as well as tribunals for specific matters, all functioning under the appellate jurisdiction of the High Court of Kerala.

Besides these, Kerala has 78 Additional District Courts (including 50 Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunals). The state also has 40 Sub Courts and 16 Additional Sub Courts. At the lower level, there are 57 Munsiff’s Courts, 24 Additional Munsiff’s Courts, and 20 Judicial Magistrate’s Courts, making a total of 77 Munsiff and Magistrate Courts. In addition, Kerala has 28 Family Courts, 27 Motor Accident Claims Tribunals, one Waqf Tribunal, 22 Fast Track Courts, and 30 Gram Nyayalayas.

Head Leaders

Departments

The business of the state government is transacted through the various secretariat departments based on the rules of business. Each department is headed by a minister, who functions as the political head, while the secretary serves as the administrative head of the department. Each department consists of secretary to the government, who is the official head of the department and such other special secretaries, additional secretaries, joint secretaries, deputy secretaries, under secretaries, section officers, and staffs subordinate to him/her. Each section, the basic administrative unit of the secretariat, is headed by a section officer and staffed by assistant section officers and assistants. The Chief secretary superintending control over the whole secretariat and staff attached to the ministers. Secretaries in charge of departments are generally officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), holding the rank of Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) or Principal Secretary, or Secretary.

The department is further divided into sections, each of which is under the charge of a section officer. Apart from these sections, dealing with the subjects allotted to them, there are other offices sections, assigned with specific duties. When there is more than one secretary in a department, there shall be a clear separation of work.

In addition to the Secretariat, the Government operates various line departments—commonly known as Directorates or Commissionerates—which function under the administrative control of their respective Secretariat Departments. These departments are responsible for policy implementation and service delivery and are headed by designated officers such as Directors, Commissioners, or Directors General, who may belong to IAS, IPS, IFS, or technical/specialist cadres.

Besides government departments, the state performs its functions through several allied institutions, including autonomous bodies, welfare fund boards, development authorities, commissions, public sector undertakings, universities, and cultural institutions.

At present there are 50 Secretariat Departments as below:

Administrative divisions

For administrative convenience, Kerala State has been divided into 14 districts, 27 revenue divisions, 77 taluks, 152 CD blocks, and 1666 revenue villages. For local governance, the state has 941 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 6 corporations, and 87 municipalities.

State insignias

The Kerala State Emblem is a derivative version of the royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Travancore. The state emblem symbolises two elephants guarding the Imperial Shanku, or conch, in its imperial crest. This crest was the insignia of Lord Sree Padmanabha (a form of Lord Vishnu) - the national deity of Travancore. Shanku was considered one of the common emblems of a majority of the Kerala feudal kingdoms. The Kingdom of Cochin and Zamorin's Malabar also had conch as state emblems. When the kingdoms of Cochin and Travancore merged in 1949, for a brief period, the crest carried a wheel or chakra in the centre with Shanku on top of it. With the accession of Malabar into Travancore-Cochin, the state of Kerala was formed in 1957. During this time, the royal coat of arms of the Travancore kingdom was modified by placing the "Lion Capital of Ashoka" on top of the imperial conch. The Travancore Royal Family uses the erstwhile Royal Coat of Arms of Travancore today, whereas Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Trivandrum uses only the imperial conch crest as its coat of arms.

The state animal of Kerala is the elephant, and the government emblem has two elephants in it. The state bird is the great Indian hornbill (ML:മലമ്പുഴക്കി വേഴാമ്പല്‍). The state flower is the golden shower (ML:കണിക്കൊന്ന), and the state tree is the coconut. The state fish is the pearlspot or karimeen (കരിമീന്‍‌).

Finance and Expenditure

The Government of Kerala finances its activities through its own tax and non-tax revenues, along with transfers from the Government of India. In 2024–25, the state received total revenue of ₹1,24,861.06 crore. This included ₹93,128.81 crore from the state's own revenues—₹76,642.19 crore from taxes and ₹16,486.62 crore from non-tax sources—and ₹31,732.25 crore from the Government of India, comprising the state's share of central taxes and central grants.

Major sources of tax revenue include the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST), State Excise, Motor Vehicles Tax, Sales and Commercial Taxes, Stamp Duty and Registration Fees, and Land Revenue. Major non-tax revenue sources include lotteries, dividends and profits, interest receipts, fees, and other receipts.

Major expenditure is incurred on salaries, pensions, interest payments, education, healthcare, social development, grants to local self-government institutions, and welfare programmes. In 2025–26, Social Development accounted for the largest share of government expenditure at ₹87,966 crore, followed by Salary (₹57,565 crore), Pension (₹38,670 crore), Interest Payments (₹34,376 crore), Education (₹33,330 crore), Local Body Grants (₹14,761 crore), and Medical and Public Health (₹13,261 crore). In comparison, the largest expenditure heads in 2024–25 were Salary (₹39,903 crore), Interest Payments (₹29,138 crore), Pension (₹27,885 crore), Education (₹23,111 crore), Grants-in-Aid (₹11,665 crore), and Medical and Public Health (₹10,431 crore).

State budget

The State Budget of Kerala, officially known as the Annual Financial Statement under the Constitution of India, is the government's annual financial plan outlining its estimated revenue and expenditure for a financial year.

It is presented in the Kerala Legislative Assembly by the Kerala Finance Minister and requires legislative approval before implementation. It is usually presented in February. The budget allocates funds to various government departments and sectors, while also detailing the state's expected sources of revenue, such as taxes, non-tax income, grants, and borrowings.

Elections

Elections to the state assembly and local bodies are held every five years. Elections are generally held for Parliament, State assembly and regional municipalities and rural panchayats. Due to the large numbers of eligible voters, over 21 million, elections are usually held on several dates. Like all other Indian states, the minimum age of registration of a voter is 18 years.

Politics

Kerala has a unique position in India as one of the most politicised states. It has the nation's largest politically aware population, which actively participates in state politics.

Politics in Kerala has been dominated by two political fronts, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Indian National Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), since the late 1970s. These two coalitions have alternated in power since 1982, although this pattern was broken in 2021. According to the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election, the LDF has a majority in the state assembly (99/140).

The political alliance has strongly stabilised and, with rare exceptions, most of the coalition partners maintain loyalty to the alliance. As a result of this, power has alternated between these two fronts since 1979.

In terms of individual parties, the state has strong leanings towards socialism and thus Communist parties have made strong inroads in Kerala. The Malabar region, particularly Kannur and Palakkad, are considered the heartland of the Communist parties. The Kollam and Alapuzha districts, where trade unions have a strong presence, are generally inclined to Left parties, though several times the UDF has won. The CPI(M) led LDF did a clean sweep of 11–0 over UDF and NDA in Kollam district during 2016 Local body election. The largest Communist party is the CPIM and the second largest is the CPI.

The Indian National Congress, which leads the UDF coalition, has had a very strong presence in Kerala since pre-Independence days. The Congress party has great popularity in the Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram regions, whereas it has a strong influence in some parts of Idukki regions.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (the Party that currently leads the Government of India) is also active in Kerala, but is not part of either coalition. It has only one elected Parliament member from Thrissur, and has lost its one Legislative Assembly member in the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election and selected members in all the Corporations, several Municipal Councils and a large number of Local Panchayats. The party enjoys popularity in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod.

Other popular regional parties are:

• The Kerala Congress, which has more than four denominations after breaking away from the original party. It has strong influence among settlement populations in hilly regions. The various Kerala Congress denominations are primarily patronised by the Syrian Christian community and Nair populations, mostly in Central Travancore areas like Kottayam, Idukki and Pathanamthitta. Today, most of Kerala Congress parties are with the UDF.
• The Indian Union Muslim League is a powerful pro-Muslim community-oriented party, which was started as the Muslim League prior to Independence, yet decided to transfer their allegiance to the Indian Union after Independence, when the original Muslim League went to Pakistan. The IUML-Kerala unit is the only Muslim League group to declare its allegiance and loyalty to India and hence become a state party in post-Independence India. The party has strongholds mostly in Muslim-dominated districts like Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kasargod. They form the second largest party within the UDF.
• Socialist groups, consisting of several small fragmented parties like the NCP (SP), SJD-S, JDS, and Congress-S, are mainly centre-left socialist parties having very limited influence in a few pocket areas. Most of the socialist groups are with the LDF, though in a few instances, some of them changed their loyalties to the UDF.
• Communist parties consist of various groups which have broken away from the CPIM. They are mostly centre-left parties, though a few are extreme-left. While a few centre-left parties like the RSP have joined with the UDF, those that broke away from the CPIM, like the CMP and JSS, led by erstwhile CPIM veterans who were expelled from CPIM, have joined with the UDF.
• The Bharath Dharma Jana Sena or BDJS is a new political party formed in 2015 led by Thushar Vellapally. The party's primary vote base is among Ezhava and Thiyya community. It is politically and ideologically aligned towards the BJP and is a part of National Democratic Alliance.