CHENNAI: The State government has decided to honour retired judge K Chandru with the Dr Ambedkar Award 2021, and Dravidian movement historian S Thirunavukkarasu with the Thanthai Periyar Award. The awards comprising Rs 5 lakh cash, a gold medal and a citation will be presented at a later date. The cash component of the awards was hiked from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh this year by Chief Minister MK Stalin.
As an advocate, Chandru had dealt with criminal and civil cases in the Madras High Court. He was appointed as an additional judge of the High Court on July 31, 2006, and was made a permanent judge on November 9, 2009. He is renowned for judgements that emancipated poor and underprivileged people. He has always fought caste discrimination, and travelled across the State to live amongst marginalised sections of the society. Chandru had pronounced over 96,000 verdicts, and authored several books.
Thanthai Periyar awardee S Thirunavukkarasu is fondly called the mobile encyclopedia of the Dravidian movement. He has authored two volumes on the history of the Justice Party, covering the period from 1916 to 1944 (till the Justice party was rechristened as Dravidar Kazhagam). Some of Thirunavukkarasu’s other famous book are Dravida Iyakka Vergal (Roots of Dravidian movement), Dravida Iyakkath Thoongal (Pillars of Dravidian movement). In appreciation of his writings, former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had honoured him with the Thiru.Vi.Ka Award in 2006.