Ex-CJI Verma's family won't accept Padma Bhushan

The family of eminent jurist and former chief justice of India, late justice JS Verma, has decided not to accept the Padma Bhushan awarded to him posthumously on the eve of Republic Day this year, a newspaper report said today.

The family of eminent jurist and former chief justice of India, late justice JS Verma, has decided not to accept the Padma Bhushan awarded to him posthumously on the eve of Republic Day this year, a newspaper report said on Friday.

According to the Indian Express, the fact that Verma was being awarded just a Padma Bhushan has hurt his family and that they were not consulted formally before the announcement too added to that.

The daily quoted from the letter his wife Pushpa Verma wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.

"We do not want to accept what we know Justice Verma himself would not have accepted," Verma's wife Pushpa Verma has said in the letter.

She has said in the letter that she is yet to receive any official communication and found out from media reports that her husband was being awarded one of India's highest civilian awards.

She said that she does not think it "appropriate" to accept the award on his behalf as he "never hankered or lobbied for any acclaim, reward or favour".

"He always and strictly, put India first before any personal profit or gain. He will always be remembered as one of India’s most pre-eminent jurists and with a legacy of alleviating substantive injustice through the forging of globally acclaimed new legal tools," the Express quoted her as saying.

Verma was the head of the three-member committee which was set up after the December 16, 2012 gang-rape in Delhi to suggest changes for stronger anti-rape laws. He died after a brief illness in April last year.