Orissa High Court
Surmani Raghunath Panigrahi And Ors. vs Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi And Ors. on 11 July, 2003
Equivalent citations: 96(2003)CLT218
Author: L. Mohapatra
Bench: L. Mohapatra
JUDGMENT L. Mohapatra, J.
1. The petitioners are eminent artists and Art lovers in different fields 6f Art; they have filed this writ application for declaration that the decision taken by the President of Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi to confer awards in the category of Odissi Dance and Sugam Sangeet for the year 2001 is illegal and Without observing due process of rules, the other prayers Of the petitioners is for a direction to the State Government to intervene and review affairs of the Akademi and insist the authorities to adopt past practice and function as per the prescribed rules in the matter of selection of awardees.
2. Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi is promoted by the State Government and, managed with the assistance of office bearers such as, President, Vice President, Secretary and the members chosen from different cultural institutions spread all over the State. It has its own constitution which provides for General Council as well as Executive Body and, Finance Committee who manage day to day affairs of the Akademi. One of the objectives of the Akademi is to.promote and encourage Artists in the field of Arts and also give awards every year to the distinguished Artists in the filed of Dance, Drama and Music etc. The Akademi has been discharging functions since 1970-71. At present the Akademi gives annual awards on eleven categories which are stated below.
i) Upendra Bhanja;
ii) Hindusthani Classical Music;
iii) Instrumental Music;
iv) Play Writing;
v) Acting/Direction;
vi) Odissi Music
vii) Odissi Dance;
viii) Sugama/Pop Music;
ix) Folk Music;
x) Lyric Writer;
xi) Folk Dance.
It is alleged that the General Council of the Akademi met on 29.9.2001 and discussed various issues and resolved that if any member of the General Council is found to be worthy of an award he can be presented with such an award and when he happens to be a member of Award Jury/Committee, he will absent himself from that category of that award. On the face of such a resolution passed by the Council it is alleged that the Secretary (P.W. 3) wrote letters to various authorities, such as General Council Members and Ex-Awardees on 28.12.2001 requesting them to forward names for the Awards for 2001 under various categories and at the same time requesting them not to nominate any person who is a member of the Akademi. However, such observation of the Secretary was objected by the petitioner No. 1, but there was no response from the Akademi. It is also alleged in the writ application that all the petitioners had made nominations for various categories of awards and the executive body in its meeting held on 28.6,2002 requested the President to consider only those persons who had been nominated and list of nominations was supplied by the Secretary. However, on 28.6.2002 the petitioners came to learn for the electronic media that the President of the Akademi has announced awards for different categories. The petitioners take objection to such declaration by the President in respect of two awards namely, Sugam Sangeet and Odissi Dance. Objection of the petitioners is that such decision has been taken by the President without considering other eminent persons in the field who have made life-time contribution and in spite of the fact that the awardees in respect of these two categories as declared by the President had not been nominated by any one at all. It is also alleged in the writ application that decision was taken in contravention of the practice adopted by the Akademi earlier and most of the persons present during meeting had not supported such decision. Shri Mohanty, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners in course of hearing also submitted that most of the persons during meeting not only refused to support such a decision but also there was no resolution of the committee in writing and the decision has been taken only by the President and the Secretary.
3. Counter-affidavit has been filed by the opposite parties 1 to 3 stating that before taking any decision names were called for from the District Councils as well as members of the General Council. After receipt of nominations the same was considered by the Executive Body which took final decision. It is stated in the counter-affidavit that the decision was taken by the Executive Body giving due weightage to all the nominations and considered the cases of distinguished Artists of National repute. So far as award in respect of Sugam Sangeet and Odissi Dance are concerned, it is stated in the counter-affidavit that both the awardees are well known in their respective fields and one of them who has been selected for the award in Odissi Dance is a recipient of Padma Bhusan. On the basis of such statement made in the counter-affidavit learned Additional Government Advocate submitted that no illegality has been committed by the Executive Committee while making selection in respect of the above two awardees.
4. After hearing learned counsel for both parties and on perusal of the averments made in the writ application as well as the counter affidavit, we are of the view that selection of the awardees in respect of the Sugam Sangeet and Odissi Dance will depend on two factors, namely (i) whether they had been nominated at all or not; and (ii) whether majority of the members present during the meeting agreed to such nomination or not. In order to arrive at a conclusion in respect of the above two factors, we directed the learned Additional Government Advocate to produce the relevant records and pursuant to such direction records were placed before the Court. The entry dated 28.6.2002 in the register maintained for recording of presence of members during meetings indicates that out of nine members seven were present. Learned counsel for the State though produced the proceedings of the meeting could not produce the resolution passed by the committee on 28.6.2002, On the other hand, it appears that in a single sheet paper names of the awardees have been mentioned and two persons have signed. It is not known whether signatures are that of the President and the Secretary or not. However, from the records placed before this Court it is clear that on 28.6.2002 out of nine members, seven members were present but no resolution was passed. It is also clear that in the list of awardees prepared in a plain sheet only two persons have signed out of seven members present in the meeting. We are, therefore, inclined to accept the case of the petitioners that most of the members did not agree to the selection made by the committee on 28.6.2002 and therefore neither there is any resolution by the committee to indicate the manner of selection of awardees nor a single paper in which names of awardees in different disciplines have been mentioned, is signed by the members present during the meeting excepting two members. Learned counsel for the State on being confronted with the documents submitted that since the writ application is confined to award in respect of Sugam Sangeet and Odissi Dance the decision with regard to rest of the awards may not been interfered with. We are unable to accept such a contention since the entire procedure/practice adopted by the Committee in selection of awards is unknown to law. We accordingly direct that the selection of awardees in respect of different categories of awards shall be reconsidered by the committee of the Akademi in accordance with its constitution and practice followed earlier. It is also directed that the resolution of the committee shall be reduced to writing for the purpose of record and only when decision of the committee is accepted by majority of the members present during meeting, such decision shall be given effect to.
5. The writ application is accordingly allowed with the aforesaid observation and direction and the selection of awardees is quashed.
Sujit Barman Roy, C.J.
I agree.