Advocate Gowtamaditya and Former Secretary, Central Sahitya Academi Sri Agrahara Krishnamurthy
High court passed a stay order against the ex-secretary of Sahitya Akademi, Agrahara Krishnamurthy for the alleged misuse of funds and favoritism. In 174th meeting of the Akademi held in Aug, 2012, allegations were made against the then secretary of the literary body of India stating irresponsible conduct, arbitrariness in granting funds and nomination for Padma awards i.e., reflecting bias towards Kannada, court strictures in a criminal matter and financial irregularities. The enquiry committee consisted of the people who made the allegations. Charge sheet was filed for the same in Nov, 2012.
A disciplinary enquiry was constituted against Mr.Krishnamurthy and the Inquiry Officer prepared his report holding Mr. Krishnamurthy guilty of the charges. The Inquiry Officer failed to appreciate the evidence and documents before him and solely relied on the statement of the prosecution. The report did not refer to any provision/rules of the Sahitya Akademi that were violated by Mr. Krishnamurthy and was framed by a biased inquiry officer. The report was made available to Mr. Krishnamurthy in Nov 2013.
After a delay of close to a year, the Sahitya Akademi passed an order in June 2014 without the unanimous mandate of the Executive Board imposing severe penalties such as (1) retrospective compulsory retirement (2) censure (3) and (4) recovery of ₹30 Lakhs from his pension. The Sahitya Akademi did not have powers to impose the above penalties in an amalgamated manner and aggrieved by the arbitrariness and manipulative manner of working of the Sahitya Akademi, Mr. Krishnamurthy approached the High Court of Karnataka for relief.
Mr. Gautamaditya, Advocate for Mr. Krishnamurthy filed WP 28348/2014 before the High Court and the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka issued notice to the Sahitya Akademi and passed an interim order dated 1.7.2014 staying recovery of any amounts from Mr.Krishnamurthy’s pension.
