Mumbai, Jun 29 (PTI) The Maharashtra government has directed that titles of the national civilian awards, such as Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan etc, should not be used as suffixes or prefixes by their recipients.

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A circular issued by the state government's general administration department also restricted the use of the titles of national civilian honours while instituting awards.

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“The national awards do not amount to titles within the meaning of Article 18 (1) and they should not be used as suffixes or prefixes. If this is done, the defaulter should forfeit the National Award conferred on him or her by following the procedure laid in Regulation 10 of each of the four notifications creating these National Awards,” the circular said citing the Supreme Court.

The circular further stated that authorities should ensure that the above directives of the Supreme Court are followed strictly without using the name of the awards at the beginning or at the end of the name of persons.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)