National Awards Policy: Prohibition of 'Padma Shri' and 'Bharat Ratna' as Titles

Key facts

• The Bombay High Court ruled that civilian awards such as 'Padma Shri' and 'Bharat Ratna' are not titles and cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to the names of awardees.
• The ruling follows a Supreme Court (SC) decision in Balaji Raghavan/SP Anand v. Union of India, which clarified that these awards do not fall under 'titles' as per Article 18(1) of the Constitution of India.
• If an awardee uses these honors as a prefix or suffix, the defaulter should forfeit the National Award following the procedure laid down in Regulation 10 of the award notifications.
• The court directed that all judicial proceedings must ensure compliance with this law as mandated by Article 141 of the Constitution of India.