Nagothu Satyanarayana, v. The Union Of India, Rep. By Its Secretary,

THE HON'BLE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN AND THE HON'BLE MS JUSTICE J.UMA DEVI WRIT APPEAL NO.1127 OF 2017 JUDGMENT: {Per the Hon'ble the Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan} The appellant herein filed WP.No.15239 of 2017 to declare the action of the Government of India in not cancelling or annulling the award of 'Padma Bhushan' awarded to the third respondent, for misuse of the award 'Padma Bhushan' in Criminal Petition No.5798 of 2016 before the Court and for exhibiting award proudly before the Court, as arbitrary and illegal. In the order under appeal the learned Single Judge, after referring to the judgment of the Supreme Court in Balaji Raghavan v.

of the criminal Petition; this being a notable one, was also referred along with other distinctions; and there was no merit in the argument of the petitioner, who appeared in person, and the same was liable to be dismissed.

The fact that the third respondent was awarded 'Padma Bhushan' is not in dispute. A mere statement in the Criminal Petition that he received 'Padma Bhushan' award, cannot be construed as misuse of the award granted to him. The Learned Single Judge has, in our opinion, rightly dismissed the Writ Petition. In an intra-Court appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters patent, interference is justified only if the order passed by the learned Single Judge suffers from a patent illegality. We find no such infirmity in the order under appeal.

The Writ Appeal fails and is accordingly dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending shall stand dismissed.

_________________________________ (RAMESH RANGANATHAN, ACJ) _________________ (J.UMA DEVI, J) 11th August 2017 RRB