Karnataka HC rejects petition seeking to make judges eligible for Padma awards

While hearing the matter a division bench of Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said that giving awards to judges, Padma or other state awards, was against the Constitution

A division bench of Karnataka high court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking directions to make sitting Supreme Court and high court judges eligible for Padma awards or other state awards and said that “we are not interested in getting awards”.

Karnataka high court, however, said it was not satisfied as to why any indulgence is to be granted. (Arijit Sen/HT Photo)

While hearing the matter a division bench of Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said that giving awards to judges, Padma or other state awards, was against the Constitution. “You could not get a better issue to raise for the benefit of judges? We are not interested in getting awards. We are only interested in working. We don’t want any awards. We are totally against the awards,” the bench observed.

The petition filed by Dr. Vinod Kulkarni on October 22 prayed to reserve one award of Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, which is awarded on Karnataka state formation day celebrated on November 1, for the sitting Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. “Conferring of such awards on government doctors and not on sitting judges of the top courts, infringes upon the doctrine of the basic structure of the Constitution because both medical and legal professions are regarded as noble professions,” read the petition.

Kulkarni, in his plea, further said that honouring judges with national and state awards will certainly boost their morale and accentuate their performance, leading to fast and speedy disposal of cases.

The court, however, said it was not satisfied as to why any indulgence is to be granted. “The award such as Padma awards or state awards are given at the discretion of the central or state government and no person has any right to claim that he shall be given such awards. The petition is devoid of merits is dismissed,” it said.