Kerala to disburse ₹13.47 crore in pension arrears to erstwhile royals

As part of the decision to raise the Family and Political Pension for erstwhile royal family members to ₹3,000—with retrospective effect from January 1, 2011—the Kerala government now has arrears amounting to ₹13.47 crore. These arrears cover the period from January 1, 2011, to October 29, 2017. This was revealed in an RTI filed by activist Raju Vazhakkala.

Before the merger of the Travancore and Cochin princely states on July 1, 1949, pensions were paid to royal families in return for the properties and assets they had ceded to the respective governments. The families that were receiving such pensions are now eligible under the Family and Political Pension scheme.

This pension began to be disbursed in cash following a Pension Payment Order dated April 25, 1957. Initially, the monthly amount was ₹7.80.

Notably, the privy purse was abolished by the central government in 1971. Through a constitutional amendment, the Government of India not only ended the payment of privy purses granted to royal families after independence but also withdrew official recognition of their titles and privileges. However, this pension practice, which in a way is similar to the privy purse, continues in Kerala under the Family and Political Pension scheme.

On October 29, 2017, the state government increased the pension amount for erstwhile royals from Travancore and Cochin from ₹1,000 to ₹3,000. However, several beneficiaries moved court seeking the enhancement with retrospective effect from 2011. They argued that the government had granted this benefit—retrospective revision from 2011—only to members of a particular family, the Njavakkattu family from Meenachil, while denying it to others.

They pointed out that while the government revised the pension to ₹3,000 for all families prospectively, it had done so retrospectively only in the case of the Njavakkattu family. Notably, when this was challenged in court, the government failed to present a convincing explanation as to why members of other erstwhile royals were denied the same benefit.

As a result, the government is now required to pay the arrears to all eligible royal family members. According to the official order, the pension arrears for the period from January 1, 2011, to October 29, 2017, will be disbursed in six equal installments, to be completed by February 2026.

In 2021, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan responded to a question in the state assembly, stating that the erstwhile rulers of Kozhikode—the Samoothiri family—have also been receiving a ₹2,500 pension from the state government since 2013, in addition to the Malikhana paid by the central government since 1960. Over the ten-year period since 2013, the state has disbursed ₹19.51 crore to the Samoothiri family members as well.

India