Sahitya Akademi Awards Announcement Put On Hold After Culture Ministry Raises Concerns Over 'Selection'

New Delhi: The Sahitya Akademi was forced to cancel a press conference it had organised on Thursday to announce its annual literary awards following a directive from the Union Ministry of Culture.

The autonomous literary body under the ministry, which is the country’s national academy of letters, confers awards each year to books in 24 languages. The announcement was put on hold as the culture ministry was reportedly upset with the selection process.

The press conference which was slated to take place at 3 pm in Delhi after a meeting of the Executive Board of the literary body, was called off minutes before it was supposed to begin, and the awards process was put on hold.

The Culture ministry reportedly cited an ongoing restructuring process of the awards in a note sent to the Akademi ahead of the press conference, following which the deferment took place.

The note was sent to four autonomous bodies – the National School of Drama, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi and the Sahitya Akademi – which come under the culture ministry.

The note added: “In this regard, you are requested to inform this ministry of the measures taken so far,” as per reports.

The ministry further added that “no process for declaration of awards shall be undertaken” without its approval, until it clears the restructuring process, reports said.

An unidentified official in the culture ministry further stated that the note was necessitated as the press conference had been called without the ministry’s knowledge, and without the process for the selection of the awardees being approved.

KP Ramanunni, writer and a member of the Akademi’s executive board, said this was the first such cancellation in the history of the literary body and described the postponement of the awards process as “unfortunate”, as per reports.

The sudden halt of the Sahitya Akademi has sparked debate within literary circles over institutional autonomy, award governance, and the future course of the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2025.

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