The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued a stay on the conferment of the 2023 Vikram Award for Adventure Sports to mountaineer Bhawna Dehariya. The interim order was passed in response to legal challenges filed by fellow mountaineers Madhusudan Patidar, Ashish Gupta, and Megha Parmar, who questioned the selection process and eligibility criteria applied by the Department of Sports and Youth Welfare.
Bhawna Dehariya, who summited Mount Everest in May 2019, was selected for the award under the adventure sports category for the year 2023. However, mountaineers Madhusudan Patidar and Ashish Gupta, who reached the summit in 2017, and Megha Parmar, who also summited Everest in 2019 just hours before Bhawna, contested the decision. They argued that the criteria used by the department to determine eligibility—specifically the five-year limit on applications from the date of achievement—was improperly applied or inconsistently enforced.
The petitioners maintained that extreme adventure sports achievements such as scaling Mount Everest should not be bound by rigid time-based rules, especially since these expeditions involve high risk and significant personal investment. Madhusudan and Ashish contended that their applications were unfairly excluded based on the five-year eligibility clause. Megha Parmar added that despite reaching the summit before Bhawna on the same day, she was overlooked, raising concerns about fairness in the evaluation process.
In response, the Sports Department defended its selection by stating that the award process followed due procedure. It explained that no applications were received in 2022, and hence, the award in the adventure sports category was not granted that year. In 2023, a fresh call for applications was issued through public advertisements, clearly mentioning the five-year eligibility rule, and Bhawna was selected in accordance with this guideline.
The matter took a legal turn when Madhusudan filed a contempt petition just before the scheduled award ceremony. Acting on the petitions, the Madhya Pradesh High Court passed an interim order staying the award to Bhawna Dehariya until further orders. The court directed the Department of Sports and Youth Welfare not to proceed with the conferment of the award and asked it to file its response before the next hearing.
The case will now proceed with the High Court set to examine the legality and consistency of the award selection process, particularly the application of the five-year eligibility criterion in the context of adventure sports achievements. Until a final decision is reached, the award to Bhawna Dehariya remains on hold.
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