On Friday a divisional bench of the Karnataka High Court rejected a petition asking for instructions to make sitting Supreme Court and High Court judges eligible for the Padma or other state awards. The court continued that “we are not interested in receiving prizes ”.
Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum while hearing the petition said that awarding judges, Padma or other government awards was against the constitution. “Could you not bring up a better topic for the benefit of the judges? We are not interested in receiving awards. We are only interested in working. We do not want awards. We are totally against awards,” the court stated.
Dr.Vinod Kulkarni filed a petition on October 22nd to reserve an award from the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, which will be presented on the day Karnataka was founded on November 1st, for the sitting Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. “Giving such awards to government doctors, rather than acting judges in the top courts, is against the doctrine of the basic structure of the Constitution because both the medical and legal professions are considered noble professions,” the petition said.
The petitioner further added that honouring judges with national and state awards will certainly increase their morale and accentuate their performance, resulting in a quick and swift resolution of the cases.
However, the court stated that it was not satisfied with why leniency should be granted. “Awards such as the Padma awards or state awards are given at the discretion of the central or state government and no one has the right to request such awards be given. The petition that is not valid is dismissed, ”he said.
