PIL Moved Before Kerala High Court To Quash Padma Bhushan Awarded To Vellappally Natesan

A public interest litigation has been moved before the Kerala High Court seeking a direction for quashing the conferment of Padma Bhushan to Vellappally Natesan.

Interestingly, earlier today, a Single Bench of the High Court held that Natesan was disqualified from holding the office of General Secretary of the SNDP Yogam since he and other office bearers of the Yogam had violated the provisions of the Companies Act by not filing audited accounts of the Yogam for three consecutive years.

The present plea has been filed by Sree Narayana Dharma Prabodhana Sarnrakshna Samithi, which has pointed out that Natesan has been arrayed as an accused in several criminal cases, for various offences including cheating, misappropriation of funds, etc. He is also arrayed as an accused in several vigilance cases.

In the plea, one of cases highlighted is the Micro Finance Scam in which it is alleged that the SNDP Yogam misappropriated funds received from the Kerala State Backward Classes Development Corporation Ltd. during the period from 2003 to 2014.

"The allegation is that SNDP Yogam received such funds during the years 2003 to 2014 and the funds received were misappropriated by personnel of SNDP Yogam. They created false and forged utilization certificates and submitted the same before the Corporation. The scam in Kerala is infamously known as “Micro Finance Scam”, states the plea.

The plea also refers to a criminal case in which Natesan, as Secretary of the Yogam, is accused of misappropriating and diverting funds received in connection with the Golden Jubilee Celebration of SN College, Kollam.

An excerpt of the interview given by Natesan to Indian Express in which he had made derogatory remarks about the Padma awards is also produced in the plea.

It is further stated that after it came to know about conferment of Padma Bhushan to Natesan, the petitioner trust made a representation before the office of the President of India informing about the pending criminal cases against Natesan but nothiing has come out of it.

According to the petitioner, awarding of Padma Bhushan to someone like Natesan, who had engaged in embezzlement of money, would erode the public confidence in such awards. It is further alleged that the conferment of Padma Bhushan to Natesan is arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

The petitioner trust has thus sought for a declaration that the conferment of the award to Natesan is arbitrary and illegal. Additionally, it has prayed for an order quashing conferment of the award to Natesan.

As an interim prayer, the petitioner has sought a direction to the Court to stay all further proceedings pursuant to the press note issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs so far as it confers Padma Bhushan to Vellappally Natesan pending disposal of the plea.

The petition is moved by Advocate D. Anil Kumar.

Case No: WP(PIL) No. 38/2026

Case Title: Sree Narayana Dharma Prabodhana Sarnrakshna Samithi v. Union of India and Ors.