Orissa Lalit Kala Akademi in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, June 24: Orissa Lalit Kala Akademi is embroiled in a controversy with the annual award declared by it coming under judicial scrutiny.

The selection and declaration of the 34th Orissa State Lalit Kala Akademi Award was challenged in the high court through a writ petition on the ground that it allegedly did not have approval of the executive board of the Akademi. Pranabandhu Swain, a resident of Bhubaneswar, had filed the petition. “The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra yesterday issued notices to the secretary of the Akademi,” petitioner counsel Siba Narayan Panda told The Telegraph. Swain had filed the petition after issuing a legal notice to the secretary of the Akademi for cancellation of the notification declaring names of the award winners.

The Akademi declared the names of eight winners of the 34th Orissa State Lalita Kala Akademi Award through a notification on March 7. But, the awards carrying a cash prize of Rs 25,000 and a citation had not been given away. According to the petition, the term of the general council and executive board of the Akademi, which was constituted by the government through a notification on August 29, 2007 for a fixed tenure of three years, expired on August 29, 2010.

As per section 14 (g) of the constitution of the Akademi, the approval body for awards and prizes is the executive board of the Akademi. The selection process of the 34th Orissa State Lalit Kala Akademi Award was started on June 15, 2010 with invitation of photographs from artists.

“Since the post of secretary remained vacant from June 14, 2010 to August 24, 2010 and the general council and executive board had not been reconstituted, there was no scope for approval of the award by executive board of the Akademi,” the petition contended.