Fight to ward off Govt designs on Lalit Kala Academy

The petitioner alleges that the Administrator has amended the Constitution without jurisdiction and authority, with the sole objective of reducing the role of artistes in Akademi management and vesting it in the Government, its nominees and bureaucrats. The High Court has issued showcause notices to the respondents — the Cabinet Secretary and the Administrator — as to why the petition should not be admitted for March 17.

The High Court bench also noted that the Administrator, by amendingthe Constitution, “is perpetually changing the basic character of the body, which is not permissible under the law”.

Trouble has been brewing in the Akademi ever since it was taken over by the Government for a limited period, after a Bill was introduced in Parliament by the then minister of human resources development, S R Bommai, in March 1997. The ministry justified the takeover as the Akademi was mired in allegations and the institution refused to accept the recommendations of the Haksar Committee Report. The committee was set up in 1988, under chairmanship of P N Haksar, to review the role, functioning and goals of the Akademi.

The petitioner says the general council of the Akademi accepted almost all the recommendations of the Haksar Report in 1992, when Ram Niwas Mirdha was chairman. It went on to reconsider the recommendations after the Government ordered it to in 1996, and the general council accepted the remaining recommendations with a few modifications made in consultation with the Departmentof Culture.

The recent crisis arose after the Union Cabinet passed recommendations submitted by the Administrator in November which, the petitioner says, goes against even the spirit of the Haksar Report. For instance, while the report recommended no age limit for the chairman, the Government has put a limit of 65 years.

The petitioner says the age limit has been introduced to exclude senior and veteran artistes and to pave the way for retiring bureaucrats. The Haksar Report said the financial advisor should be a full-time functionary appointed by the Akademi and answerable to the general council. The Government has said the advisor shall be appointed by the Government and shall hold such office at the pleasure of the Government.

“Yet another instance of concentrating powers in the Government,” says the petition.

The Government has also increased its nominees in the general council, reduced artistes’ representation in the council and in the executive board by clever devices and adopted other similarrecommendations.

The petition pleads that since the recent amendments to the Constitution are at variance with the Haksar Report, and because Parliament passed the LKA (Takeover of Management) Act 1997 primarily for implementation of the Haksar Report, the Act itself deserves to be quashed and all action under the amended Constitution stayed.