Madras High Court rejects PIL seeking revocation of Jaggi Vasudev’s Padma Vibhushan

The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by a lawyer seeking a direction to the Central government to revoke the Padma award conferred upon spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev in April 2017.

A bench of Chief Justice KR Shriram and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy dismissed the PIL that was filed in 2017 by advocate M Vetriselvan.

The bench said it was “satisfied” that the Union government had adhered to requisite norms for the conferment of the award.

The petitioner moved the Court claiming that Vasudev’s Padma Vibhushan award be revoked given that his foundation, the Isha Foundation, was facing multiple charges and was the subject of litigation in several cases.

However, Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan, who appeared for the Central government, told the Court that the Padma awards were conferred upon eminent persons following recommendations and scrutiny by a committee comprising of members such as the cabinet secretary, home secretary, secretary to the President and others.

The names of the awardees were finalised only after due consideration and the government had “not received any adverse inputs from the intelligence agencies” before the conferment of the award on Vasudev, the ASG said.