HC bins PIL against renaming of award

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the renaming of ‘Jayadev Award’ with that of ‘Mohan Sundar Dev Goswami Award’ for lifetime contribution towards growth and development of Odisha cinema.
The ‘Jayadev Award’ used to be conferred since 1980 and carried a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.
On July 26 last year, the previous BJD govt made changes through an amendment resolution.
In the petition, executive trustee of Jaydev Foundation Trust, Prafulla Chandra Tripathy had sought intervention as the ‘Jayadev Award’ was substituted by ‘Mohan Sundar Dev Goswami Award’ and carried a cash prize of Rs 50,000. Earlier, the ‘Mohan Sundar Dev Goswami Award’, named after the producer of ‘Sita Bibaaha’, the first film in Odia, was being conferred on the best feature film.
Dismissing the petition, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Savitri Ratho said the plea was ‘misconceived’ as the rules are not statutory in character. “What is under challenge in the present writ application falls within the exclusive domain of the executive. This court exercising power of judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution of India does not have judicially determinable parameters to interfere with the impugned action of the state,” the bench said in its order released on July 4.