Revision as of 20:50, 21 August 2013

Bharat Ratna

Padma Vibhushan

Padma Bhushan (obverse)

Padma Bhushan

Padma Shri

The source of the first part of this article

INDIA 2012

A REFERENCE ANNUAL

Compiled by

RESEARCH, REFERENCE AND TRAINING DIVISION

PUBLICATIONS DIVISION

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Padma awards

Padma awards are amongst the highest civilian awards of the country. There are three categories of Padma Awards - 'Padma Vibhushan', 'Padma Bhushan' and 'Padma Shri'. These are given for distinguished service in any field including Art, Literature and Education, Science and Engineering, Sports, Medicine, etc. Padma Awards are announced on the eve of the Republic Day every year.

PADMAAWARDS CONFERRED ON REPUBLIC DAY 2011

Padma Vibhushan Recipients

Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Dr. Vijay Laxman Kelkar

Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra

Shri K. Parasaran

Shri Azim Premji

Dr. Akkineni Nageswara Rao

Professor Palle Rama Rao

Smt. Homai Vyarawalla

Dr. Akhlaq Ur Rahman Kidwai

Prof. O.N.V. Kurup

Shri Brajesh Chandra Mishra

Dr. (Smt.) Kapila Vatsyayan

Padma Bhushan Recipients

Shri S.P. Balasubrahmanyam

Shri Mahesh Nilkanth Buch

Shri C.V. Chandrasekhar

Shri Yogesh Chander Deveshwar

Shri Sankha Ghosh

Shri Khayyam

Shri Madavoor Vasudevan Nair

Dr. S. Ramachandraan

Smt. Shobhana Sitaram Ranade

Dr. G.V.K. Reddy

Smt. Waheeda Rehman

Shri Analjit Singh

Dr. Surendra Singh

Dr. Rudrapatna Krishna Sastry Srikantan

Dr. K. Raghavan Thirumulpad (Posthumous)

Shri Rajshree Birla

Shri Ajai Chowdhry

Shri Satyadev Dubey

Shri T.RS,.S. George

Shri S. Gopalkrishnan

Dr. Keki Byram Grant (Posthumous)

Shri Shashi Kapoor

Shri Krishen Khanna

Smt. Chanda Kochhar

Shri Dwijen Mukherjee

Dr. Ramdas Madhav Pai

Shri Dasharath Patel (Posthumous)

Shri Rajendra Singh Pawar

Dr. Kallam Anji Reddy

Shri Shyam Saran

Ms. Arpita Singh

Padma Shri Recipients :

Shri Mamraj Agarwala

Shri Mecca Refeeque Ahmed

Prof. M. Annamalai

Dr. Jockin Arputham

Shri Granville Austin

Dr. Pukhraj Bafna

Dr. Mani Bhaumik

Ms. Urvashi Butalia

Shri Ajoy Chakrabarty

Smt. Nomita Shipra Chandy

Dr. Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry

Dr. Pravin Darji

Dr. Chandra Prakash Deval

Smt. Mahasundari Devi

Ms. N. Kunjarani Devi

Prof. (Dr.) Madhukar Keshav Dhavalikar

Shri Gajan Govardhana

Dr. Mansoor Hasan

Dr. Indira Hinduja

Shri Shaji Neelakantan Karun

Shri Sat Pal Khattar

Shri Balraj Komal

Shri Sushil Kumar

Smt. Rajni Kumar

Smt. Shanti Teresa Lakra

Shri V.V.S. Laxman

Shri Devanoora Mahadeva

Ms. Shital Kamalakar Mahajan

Dr. Shyama Prasad Mandal

Dr. M.H. Mehta

Shri Ritu Menon

Dr. Azad Moopen M

Prof. (Dr.) Bhalchandra Vana Nemade

Dr. Jose Chacko Periappuram

Prof. Karl Harrington Potter

Shri Dadi Dorab Pudumjee

Prof. Riyaz Punjabi

Prof. Koneru Ramakrishna Rao

Smt. M.K. Saroja

Shri P.K. Sen

Shri Anant Darshan Shankar

Shri Khangembam Mangi Singh

Shri Jayaram Subramaniam

Ms. Tabu

Shri Prahlad Singh Tipanya

Dr. Om Prakash Agarwal

Prof. (Dr.) M. Ahmed Ali

Prof. (Dr.) Upendra Baxi

Shri Mahim Bora

Prof. Pullella Sri Rama Chandrudu

Dr. Martha Alter Chen

Ms. Mamang Dai

Smt. Kajol Devgan

Shri Makar Dhwaj Darogha

Prof. (Dr.) Devi Prasad Dwivedi

Smt. Sunayana Hazarilal

Prof. S.R. Janakiraman

Dr. Girish Kasaravalli

Shri Sahabzade Irrfan Ali Khan

Prof. Krishna Kumar

Shri Peruvanam Kuttan Marar

Shri Barun Mazumder

Shri Jivya Soma Mhase

Smt. Gulshan Nanda

Shri Gagan Narang

Dr. Avvai Natarajan

Smt. Sheela Patel

Smt. Kshemavathy Pavithran

Prof. (Dr.) A. Marthanda Pillai

Smt. Krishna Poonia

Shri C. N. Reghavendran

Shri K. Raghavendran Rao

Ms. Anita Reddy

Dr. Suman Sahai

Smt. Buangi Sailo

Shri Gopalan Nair Shankar

Prof. D.D. Sharma

Prof. Nilamber Dev Sharma

Prof. E.A. Siddiq

Shri Harbhajan Singh

Dr. Subra Suresh

Shri Kanubhai Hasmukhbhai Tailor

Smt. Usha Uthup

Prof. (Dr.) Sivapatham Vittal

Shri Narayan Singh Bhati Zipashni

The legal aspect

A limit on the number of awards?

Will govt restrict No. of Padma awards?

Dhananjay Mahapatra

The Times of India 2013/08/12

In July 2013, the government issued a revised format for aspirants to apply for Padma awards, the highest state conferred civilian decoration.

In the five years 2008-12, the government has conferred over 600 awards—38 Padma Vibhushan, 155 Padma Bhushan and 416 Padma Shri— on people who could be put in three categories—well-known, not so well-known and unknown.

Given the snob value of perceived national (political) recognition through Padma awards, there has been a mad scramble for it in the past.

Every year, a flood of applications deluge a high-level awards committee. Applicants employ the art of verbose eulogy about their achievements. The committee waddles through reams of paper before shortlisting the winners, announced on the eve of Republic Day .

To limit the verbal diarrhoea, the home ministry this year has asked aspirants not to exceed 800 words for their achievements.

How are the awardees selected and do they really deserve the nation’s highest civilian recognition? Is it just political expediency, appeasement, placation or quid pro quo?

Are these akin to titles like Rai Saheb or Rai Bahadur conferred by the colonial masters on their most loyal subjects?

Supreme Court 1995: Balaji Raghavan and S P Anand vs Union of India

Reflection of these questions can be seen in the Supreme Court’s 1995 judgment in Balaji Raghavan and S P Anand vs Union of India. It had said, “During the British occupation, India has had a spate of title hunters who brought degradation and much harm to healthy public life. The title hunters have always been considered a menace to the safe growth of a society.

Though the Padma awards are not titles but in case these awards are given at the whims of the authorities, without a proper criteria and method of selection, they are bound to do more harm to the society than the title-seekers did during the British regime.” Many are genuine achievers and conferment of the awards on them remains beyond the realm of question. But several awardees raise more than a question about their credentials.

Disgusted over indiscriminate conferment of Padma awards, Acharya J B Kriplani had in 1969 moved ‘The Conferment of Decorations on Persons (Abolition) Bill’ in Parliament. N K P Salve, despite agreeing with Kriplani’s concern, had opposed the bill.

Salve had said, “I am aware that the decorations have been bestowed indiscriminately on businessmen and others. In fact, one of my suggestions is that any decoration awarded to any person who is found guilty of any ‘commercial offence’ should be withdrawn. We should be extremely strict about the awarding of decorations. In fact, it is within my knowledge that some of them have put their decorations to commercial exploitation. In fact, a certain managing director of a company wrote a letter to me . On his letterhead was written ‘Ex-Rai Bahadur, Padma Vibhushan’ so and so.”

The Supreme Court in its 1995 judgment disagreed with the petitioners that these awards were akin to titles, which stood abolished by Article 18 of the Constitution.

Amicus curiae Santosh Hegde, who later became a judge of the SC, argued that the Constitution did not envisage state recognition of meritorious services through conferment of awards. But he suggested that to avoid criticism of creating a separate class of awardees, they must not use the awards as either a prefix or suffix to their names.

The court agreed with Hegde’s suggestion but was not averse to conferment of the awards. “The theory of equality does not mandate that merit should not be recognized. In this context, we may refer to the various clauses of Article 51A and specifically clause (j) which exhorts every citizen ‘to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity, so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement’. It is, therefore, necessary that there should be a system of awards and decorations to recognize excellence in the performance of these duties,” the court said.

Should there be a premium put on the awards by limiting the numbers of awardees to a deserving few rather than over a 100 every year? Should the government also put out the reasons why some known performers were rejected or not considered for these awards?

The court had answered this too. “There are no limitations prescribed for the maximum number of awards that can be granted in a given year or the maximum number that is permissible in each category. The Prime Minister’s Committee on Awards & Honours, 1948 had recommended certain limitations in terms of numbers but these have not been incorporated in the extant guidelines,” it said.

While advocating a transparent selection process, the court said, “We may only say that the committee may keep in view our anxiety that the number of awards should not be so large as to dilute their value. We may point out that in some countries, including US, the total number of awards to be given is restricted.”