hc-upholds-padma-vibhushan-honour-conferred-to-sadhguru

The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a writ petition filed in 2017, seeking a direction to the Centre to consider a plea to revoke the Padma Vibhushan award conferred on Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on the grounds that Isha Foundation was facing multiple charges and court cases.

 

The petitioner’s counsel had told the court that Padma Vibhushan was one of the highest civilian honours in the country conferred on personalities for their exceptional and distinguished service, and that the names of the recipients were announced every year on the eve of Republic Day.

 

He claimed that the Centre had failed to note that Vasudev was “not a law abiding citizen” and that there were cases pending in the High Court regarding the construction of unauthorised buildings at his Isha Yoga Centre situated on the Velliangiri foothills in Coimbatore district. 

 

Pointing out that even recently, the foundation was embroiled in a controversy. 

 

The petition argued: “He did not have a clean record at the time of consideration of his name for Padma Vibhushan. He is continuing such activities even now. Such a person can never be awarded Padma Vibhushan. Even the prestige of the country is at stake because of such conferment”. 

 

As far as the order is concerned, Chief Justice KR Shriram and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the orders after hearing the arguments of M Radhakrishnan, counsel for the writ petitioner M Vetriselvan and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) ARL Sundaresan.

 

The Bench said that it was satisfied with adherence to the norms for the conferment of the award and therefore, not inclined to issue the direction as sought for by the petitioner.

 

On his part, the ASG told the court that the Centre had not received any adverse inputs from the intelligence agencies before the conferment of the award and therefore, it was conferred on the recipient on April 13, 2017, by the then President Pranab Mukherjee.

 

The Prime Minister constitutes a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary and comprising the Union Home Secretary, secretary to the President, and a few other eminent individuals in order to scrutinise the nominations and to make appropriate recommendations. It is only after the recommendations get approved by the Prime Minister and the President the awards get announced, the counsel said.