Mumbai, May 14 (PTI) The Maharashtra government has submitted to the Bombay High Court that it has already forwarded a proposal for posthumous conferment of the Padma Vibhushan award to wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, India’s first individual Olympic medalist.
The government told the high court’s Kolhapur bench last week that a fresh proposal would also be forwarded for the ‘Padma Awards 2027’ well before the end of the nomination date on July 31.
A bench of Justices Madhav Jamdar and Pravin Patil had last month asked the Centre and the state government to decide on whether the Padma Vibhushan would be posthumously awarded to Jadhav, a wrestler hailing from Maharashtra, who was India’s first individual Olympic medalist.
The court on May 7 accepted the state government’s submission and posted the matter for further hearing on June 30.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the ‘Kusteeveer Khashaba Jadhav Foundation’, founded by his son Ranjeet Jadhav.
The PIL sought a direction to the Ministry of Home Affairs (Padma Awards Cell) to consider and decide afresh their representation for posthumous conferment of Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, to Khashaba Jadhav.
Jadhav, who passed away in 1984, had won the bronze medal in the Helsinki Olympic Games held in 1952. He was honoured with the Arjuna Award posthumously in 2001.
The PIL claimed the late wrestler’s family had filed several representations before the government to get recognition for him. When there was no response, the foundation moved the high court. PTI SP NP
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