Jabalpur, Dec 11 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court has granted an interim stay to the awarding of the Vikram Award for adventure sports to Everest climber Bhawna Dehariya for the year 2023 till it takes a decision on a petition filed by another mountaineer, Megha Parmar.
Already, an appeal has been filed before the Indore bench by mountaineer and Everester Madhusudan Patidar, claiming the state’s top sports award for 2023.
Justice Vishal Mishra of Jabalpur bench on Thursday granted the stay and scheduled the next hearing for January 5.
Parmar, a resident of Sehore, said she did not object to Dehariya’s selection, but she was the first to hoist the tricolour on Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, on May 22, 2019.
Parmar claimed that she hoisted the tricolour before Bhawna Dehariya, with a five-hour gap. The petitioner reached the summit at 5 am, while Bhawna reached at 9:45 am, the petition claimed.
Because she was the first to scale Mount Everest, she was entitled to the Vikram Award, it said.
During the previous hearing, the petitioner had argued that the rules for the 2022 Vikram Award selection process were relaxed, and the names of two male athletes from the state, mountaineers Bhagwan Singh and Ratnesh Pandey, were approved. There was a gap of one hour between them in achieving the target of scaling Mount Everest in 2016.
“This is a precedent for changing the rule to award only one athlete per year. This is the last opportunity for petitioner Megha to receive the Vikram Award, as per the nomination process,” the petitioner pointed out.
Senior advocate Vivek Krishna Tankha argued via video conferencing that the petitioner is a legitimate candidate for the award and it should not be given to anyone else until the final resolution of the petition.
Following the arguments, the court ruled, “Till the next date of hearing, the respondents authorities are directed not to hold the ceremony for grant of Vikram Award 2023.” PTI COR MAS KRK
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