The Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 was a legislative proposal introduced in the Parliament of India to officially change the name of the State of Kerala to Keralam. This Bill is a type of legislative Act, which, upon receiving Presidential assent, became a law that altered the name of a state. The origin of the Bill lies in a unanimous resolution passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly in June 2024, requesting the Central Government to effect the name change. The purpose was to replace the anglicized name "Kerala" with "Keralam," which reflects the state's native Malayalam linguistic and cultural identity.
The mechanism for this change is governed by Article 3 of the Constitution of India, which empowers Parliament to alter the name of any state by law. The process began with the Bill being introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 10, 2026, after the President's recommendation. A key procedural step was the President referring the Bill to the Kerala Legislative Assembly for its views, as required by the proviso to Article 3. The State Assembly subsequently adopted a unanimous resolution agreeing with the Bill. The Bill was passed by a simple majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill's key provision is the amendment of the First Schedule of the Constitution to replace "Kerala" with "Keralam". This process is connected to the concept of an "indestructible union of destructible states," where the Union Parliament holds the ultimate power over the territorial integrity and names of states. The change was recently enacted, with the Bill being passed by Parliament in August 2026 and receiving Presidential assent on August 17, 2026, officially replacing the name "Kerala" with "Keralam" in constitutional records.