Madras HC bars grant of award in MS Subbulakshmi's name to musician TM Krishna

The Madras high court passed the order on a petition by V Srinivasan, the grandson of MS Subbulakshmi, a Carnatic music stalwart.

The Madras high court on Tuesday restrained the Madras Music Academy (MMA) from conferring the Sangita Kalanidhi Award, named after Carnatic singing legend MS Subbulakshmi, on Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna.

TM Krishna (File Photo)

However, Justice G Jayachandran clarified that there was no bar on the academy conferring awards or honouring Krishna particularly. The honour must not be named after the great, he said.

“If a person has reverence and regard for MS Subbulakshmi, then after coming to know about her desire and mandate, they should not give any awards in her name,” Bar and Bench quoted Justice Jayachandran as saying.

The order by the single-judge bench was passed on a petition by V Srinivasan, the grandson of Subbulakshmi, the first from the music field to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

In his petition, Srinivasan challenged the conferment on Krishna, who was awarded in March. The petitioner cited his grandmother's will that stated there should not be any trust, foundation or memorial in her name after her demise.

“Our family does not want the award to be given to anybody because that would be ‘against the spirit of the will’,” the petition said.

Srinivasan, who approached the high court in August, also sought that the MMA be barred from presenting an award in Subbulakshmi's name.

The petition further mentioned that giving such an honour to Krishna was “questionable” also because he had been making “vile, vituperative and scandalous attacks” on the singing legend and had been “maligning” her reputation.

The judge, however, delivered his ruling taking into consideration only the will mentioned in the petition.