CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday stayed the operation of an order restraining the Music Academy, Chennai, from conferring the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ award in the name of Carnatic singer M S Subbulakshmi to singer T M Krishna for 2024. A division bench of Justice S S Sundar and Justice P Dhanabal passed the order on an appeal moved by the academy challenging a single judge order.
On November 19, the single judge passed the order on a plea moved by Shrinivasan, the grandson of Carnatic Subbulakshmi, alleging that awarding the prize to Krishna would amount to awarding a ‘Bhakti’ prize to an atheist, considering the ‘vile, vituperative, and scandalous’ attacks made by him against the late Subbulakshmi. The court, however, said that there is no bar against conferring the award without using the name of Subbulakshmi to recognise the achievement of Krishna.
According to Shrinivasan, after the demise of his grandmother in 2004, the academy, along with an English daily, instituted a cash award in 2005 of Rs 1 lakh styled as the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi M S Subbulakshmi Award’ to perpetuate her memory. The prize was awarded every year together with the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi Award‘ during the Music Academy’s annual concert season.
On March 17, the academy issued a press release announcing the conferment of the award on T M Krishna at its 98th annual conference in December, the petitioner said.
