Kerala HC stays handing over Poonthanam Jnanappana Award to

The Kerala High Court on Thursday stayed the Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee's decision to confer this year's 'Poonthanam Jnanappana' award on noted poet Prabha Varma for his collection of poems titled "Shyama Madhavam".

Varma is also press secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Taking up a plea filed by a lawyer seeking a direction to the Devaswom panel not to give the award, a division bench of Justices C T Ravikumar and N Nagaresh also issued notices to the Devaswom managing committee and Varma.

In his plea, the lawyer alleged that "Shyama Madhavam" containing 15 short poems is nothing but mocking Lord Krishna.

Giving the award in the name of mystic poet Poonthanam Namboothori to Varma is "to ridicule, belittle Lord Krishna and depict him as a cheat," the petitioner submitted.