The Centre on Monday told the Delhi High Court that 38 awardees have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards in protest of alleged intolerance and the killing of author M.M. Kalburgi, but maintained that there was no need to frame guidelines with regard to return of the awards.
“The constitution of the Akademi does not provide for taking back any award. It is denied that there is any need to reframe the subsisting guidelines with regard to the return of the Sahitya Akademi Awards. The issue has been considered by the executive board of the Akademi,” it said.
The court had in May asked the Centre about the number of awardees who had returned the award conferred by Sahitya Akademi functioning under the aegis of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.
While furnishing the names, the Centre said that none of them had returned the award money.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice G. Rohini was hearing a petition filed by Haji Mohammad Majid Qureshi, an advocate practicing in Madhya Pradesh, who contended that the returning of awards tarnished India’s image.
‘Return royalties too’
The petitioner’s counsel Raghav Awasthi said, “The government must formulate guidelines to ensure that if any awardee in the future is inclined to return the Sahitya Akademi award owing to dissatisfaction against the government of the day, he or she should be made to forego at least a portion of royalties or other earnings, which might have accrued to him post award.”
It has also said that the plea was to ensure that strong punitive action is taken against those who return such awards as Sahitya Akademi Puraskar, which is a “solemn token of appreciation conferred on deserving writers on behalf of Indian public and not a largesse to be doled out by any incumbent government”.
The Akademi has said in its reply that, “the executive board of the Akaedmi hopes that all momentary differences notwithstandinng, all writers of the country including the writers who have returned their awards would be able to work together to further realise the spirit of establishing the Sahitya Akademi.”
