Supreme Court refuses urgent hearing in plea against MS Subbulakshmi Award for TM Krishna

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant an urgent hearing of an appeal challenging the Madras High Court's decision to allow Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna to receive the Sangita Kalanidhi MS Subbulakshmi Award..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and PV Sanjay Kumar decided to list the matter for hearing on Monday, despite the award ceremony being scheduled for Sunday.Interestingly, the matter was mentioned by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) N Venkataraman appearing for the grandson of the musical maestro, MS Subbulakshmi, before the top court minutes after a Division Bench of the Madras High Court allowed conferment of the award on Krishna."The judgment was passed two minutes ago. This is extraordinary. He (TM Krishna) called her sexist. The award cannot be given," Venkataraman said appearing on behalf of Subbulakshmi's grandson, who has objected to conferring the award on Krishna."Listing only on Monday," the CJI said."Then (it will be) infructuous. It is on Sunday, the award ceremony," the ASG said."We can always recall (the award), thank you," the CJI responded..Minutes before the matter was mentioned in the apex court, a Bench of Justices SS Sundar and P Dhanabal of Madras High Court had set aside an injunction granted by Justice G Jayachandran in the matter. By an order passed last month, the single-judge (Justice Jayachandran) had restrained the Madras Music Academy from conferring any award in Subbulakshmi's name to TM Krishna. The single-judge clarified that there was no bar on conferring awards on Krishna, but added that such award must not be named after Subbulakshmi.This single-judge order was passed on a petition moved by Subbulakshmi’s grandson V Srinivasan. Srinivasan had approached the High Court seeking orders not just restraining the Academy from conferring the Sangita Kalanidhi Award on Krishna, but also from presenting the award in Subbulakshmi’s name altogether.He had told the High Court that he and his family did not want the award to be given to anybody because that would be “against the spirit” of Subbulakshmi’s will. He added that giving such an award to Krishna was further “questionable” since Krishna had been making “vile, vituperative, and scandalous attacks” on Subbulakshmi on social media and had been maligning the late singer’s reputation. .Earlier today, an appeal challenging the single-judge's November 19 order was heard by a Division Bench, which set aside the single-judge directive.This has now been challenged by Srinivasan before the top court.