Madras High Court sets aside order restraining Music Academy from conferring M S Subbulakshmi award on Krishna

Passing orders on a suit filed by V Srinivasan, grandson of Subbulakshmi, Justice G Jayachandran had on November 19 restrained the Music Academy from conferring the award on Krishna, a well-known Carnatic music singer.

Chennai: Setting aside a single judge order, the Madras High Court on Friday allowed a leading newspaper group to present a cash award carrying the name of Carnatic music legend M S Subbulakshmi to the winner of the Sangita Kalanidhi -- to be conferred on T M Krishna on the first day of 2025 – instituted by the prestigious The Music Academy, Chennai.  

Hours after a division bench of justice S S Sundar and P Dhanabal disagreed with justice G Jayachandran’s interpretation that the term “memorial” in the will extend to awards, the Supreme Court refused to hear a plea challenging the above order. 

Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, who appeared for the petitioner V Shrinivasan, the Carnatic legend’s grandson, nudged the first bench of the Supreme Court to take up the matter urgently. However, the bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar posted the matter for December 16. 

The Hindu Group has been presenting a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh to the Sangita Kalanidhi awardee in the name of Sangita Kalanidhi M S Subbulakshmi Award since 2005. But, Shrinivasan had contended in his plea that Subbulakshmi, in her last will and testament executed in 1997, specifically said that no trust, foundation, or a memorial of any kind should be made in her name nor any funds or donations should be collected. 

He had also objected to an award in the name of the iconic singer being conferred on Krishna, considered a rebel by many Carnatic vocalists for his outspoken nature. 

Justice G Jayachandran, who heard the case, had held on November 19 that instituting an award in Subbulakshmi’s name has gone against her wish by agreeing to Shrinivasan’s contention that the late legend had herself made it clear that no award should be named after her.  

However, the division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday said the term memorial could be open to varying interpretations. “The will does not specifically state that no award should be named after her,” the court said.

Simply put, Krishna can receive both the Sangita Kalanidhi and Rs 1 lakh cash prize sponsored by the newspaper group in the name of Subbulakshmi, for now. 

Highlighting Krishna’s past statements on Subbulakshmi, Shrinivasan had said in the petition that honouring Krishna with an award in her name would amount to bestowing a “Bhakti prize on an atheist.” 

The decision by the Music Academy in March this year to confer Sangita Kalanidhi on Krishna during the 2024 Music Festival in December triggered a major row in the conservative Carnatic music industry. 

Those who opposed Krishna being chosen for the award accused him “vilifying” the Carnatic music world and argued that it was dangerous to overlook his “glorification of a figure” like EVR Periyar who they said “openly proposed a genocide of Brahmins.” While Ranjani-Gayatri pulled out of the season, many others threatened to return their awards. 

Krishna, who started performing at the age of six, stopped performing at the annual Margazhi Festival since 2015, after making it clear that he feels “aesthetically, socially, and philosophically disconnected from the music season.” He has also been performing at unconventional spaces, including buses and metro trains, besides before fishermen. 

However, he accepted the Music Academy’s decision to confer the Sangita Kalanidhi on him, saying it is important to recognise that some things have changed (in the sabhas) in the past 10 years. 

“My choices as a musician and as an individual are there in the public domain for everybody to see. I believe in continuing to have complicated conversations and move forward musically, aesthetically, and socially to come together to realize what we all want to be as people living together,” Krishna had told DH in March.