Bharat Ratna, Arjuna awards govt’s call: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said conferment of Bharat Ratna and Padma and Arjuna awards were the sole discretion of the Union government and the selection of persons for these awards could not be adjudicated upon by the judiciary.
“Many undeserving persons may get it. Many deserving ones may get left out. But this is not a right violation which could be questioned before a court of law,” said a bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha and Justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.
The remarks came on a PIL filed by ‘Navalokam Samskarika Kendram’, which questioned the Centre dropping Kerala’s triple jumper Renjith Maheswari from the list of Arjuna awardees after asking him to take part in the mock drill in Rashtrapati Bhavan for the award ceremony.
The sports ministry had hastily dropped Maheswari for the top sports award following reports that he had tested positive for banned drugs during a championship in Kochi in 2008.
Appearing for the NGO, senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam questioned the dope test by an unauthorized agency and said the athlete had served the three-month ban and staged a comeback to bring laurels for the country. “Should such a person be dropped from the list of the awardees in a humiliating manner on the basis of a doubtful dope test,” he asked.
The bench said no one had a right to get the award and gave permission to the athlete to challenge the results of the dope test before the high court.