Madras HC squashes PIL against Bharat Ratna for Tendulkar

The Madras High Court has dismissed a PIL over conferring the Bharat Ratna to cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. The PIL, which was filed on 29 November, stated that the relevant amendments had not been made to award a sportsperson the Bharat Ratna. A CNN-IBN report says that Kanakasabai — the advocate who filed the PIL — said that the Bharat Ratna was first instituted by the President in 1954 through a notification (No:1/54/pres/), which was superseded by another presidential notification (No:1/pres/55). [caption id=“attachment_1264597” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sachin Tendulkar retired in November this year. AP[/caption] But the HC rejected the PIL after additional solicitor-general P Wilson submitted documents to prove that the Centre had already relaxed the eligibility which meant that anyone who had rendered exceptional performance in any field of human endeavour would be eligible for the award. A Times of India report says that Kanagasabai had argued that the announcement of the award to Sachin Tendulkar and scientist CNR Rao was not preceded by the mandatory gazette notification. Wilson though, filed a memo which said that the PIL had been filed on wrong premises — saying that it had not disclosed the argument that the presidential notification had been suitably amended to include persons from any field for conferment of the honour. A formal notification would be issued shortly by the President’s secretariat before the award would be conferred on Tendulkar and Rao at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Click here to read the CNN-IBN report and here for the full Times of India report.