Rules & Regulations

Selecting the most outstanding work (as was the rule for the first seventeen awards) or the writer (according to the revised rule since the eighteenth award) from so many languages for such an award is a difficult and stupendous task. Such a selection within one language itself presents problems and very often raises controversies and criticism. What then would be the case when languages are as many as fifteen or more? Was it not almost impossible to get a team of versatile scholars who would be masters of many languages?

The experience over the years has, however, shown that, given the goodwill and an objective approach, remarkable results are possible even in such a challenging task. The process of selection begins with the submission of proposals by a large number of litterateurs, teachers, critics and discriminating readers, also from various universities, literary and language associations and other similar organisations. (As per the rules of the award, once a language gets the award, it is not eligible for consideration during the next two years. Thus two languages are out of reckoning for the award every year).

There is an Advisory Committee for each language, consisting of three eminent literary critics and scholars. These committees are reconstituted every three years. The proposals received are scrutinized by the concerned Language Advisory Committee. A Language Advisory Committee is not obliged to make its recommendations out of these proposals only. It is free to consider other writers before making its recommendation for the award. In fact, a Language Advisory Committee is expected to ensure that no deserving writer of the language concerned is left out of its consideration. A committee is expected to take into account the entire literary creativity of the author and evaluate it in the background of contemporary writing.

The rule has been slightly revised since the 18th Award. The entire contributions of an author for Indian Literature are taken into account for the award. From 49^th Jnanpith Award, English has been included in the language list along with other Indian languages for consideration of Jnanpith Award, However, the award is open for only Indian citizens.

 

The recommendations of various Language Advisory Committees are placed before the Selection Board. The Board consists of not less than seven and not more than eleven members, who are all of high repute and integrity.

The Board, to begin with, was constituted by the Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust but, subsequently, vacancies continue to be filled in on the recommendations of the Selection Board itself. Each member has a term of three years but is eligible to continue for a further period of two more terms. Eminent scholars and writers of the country have become chairman or members of the Selection Board.

Past Chairmen and Members of the Selection Board

S.No	Name	Designation
1	Dr. Sampurnanand	Chairman
2	Kaka Kalelker
3	Dr. Nihar Ranjan Ray	Chairman
4	Dr. V. Gopal Reddy	Chairman
5	Dr. Karan Singh	Chairman
6	Dr. Harekrishan Mahatab
7	Dr. V. Raghavan
8	Smt. Rama Jain
9	Shri Lakshmi Chandra Jain	Ex-officio
10	Dr. Ranganath R. Diwakar
11	Dr. K.G. Saiyidain
12	Shri G.S. Kurup
13	Dr. Adityanath Jha
14	Dr. Bezwada G. Reddy	Chairman
15	Dr. Hazari Prasad Dwivedi
16	Dr. Umashankar Joshi	Chairman
17	Dr. Vinayak K. Gokak	Chairman
18	Shri Jagadish C. Mathur
19	Dr. Debi P. Pattanayak
20	Prof. M.V. Rajadhyaksha
21	Dr. M. Varadarajan
22	Shri B.K. Rao
23	Prof. Jayalal Kaul
24	Dr. R.K. Dasgupta
25	Dr. Masud Husain
26	Shri Shanti Prasad Jain
27	Dr. Maheswara Neog
28	Dr. Narayana Menon
29	Smt. Durga Jain
30	Dr. Devendra Nath Sharma
31	Shri Sitakant Mahapatra
32	Shri Anantrai M. Rawal
33	Prof. Gurbachan S. Talib
34	Shri K.B. Jagannathan
35	Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao	Chairman
36	Shri Gulabdas Broker
37	Shri Hayatullah Ansari
38	Dr. H.M. Nayak
39	Prof. V.I. Subramoniam
40	Prof. Sisir Kumar Das
41	Dr. (Mrs.) V. Rajadhyaksha
42	Prof. G.N. Reddy
43	Prof. S.C. Dube
44	Smt. Alka Jalan
45	Prof. Vidya Niwas Mishra
46	Dr. B.K. Bhattacharya
47	Dr. Prabhakar Machwe
48	Dr. Nabaneeta Dev Sen
49	Dr. K.M. George
50	Dr. I. Panduranga Rao	Ex-officio
51	Prof. Shantinath K. Desai
52	Smt. Amrita Pritam
53	Ms. Qurratulain Hyder
54	Prof. Namwar Singh
55	Prof. P.L. Gadgil
56	Prof. Dinesh Misra	Ex-officio
57	Dr. L.M. Singhvi	Chairman
58	Prof. U.R. Anantha Murthy
59	Shri M.T. Vasudevan Nair
60	Smt. Mahasveta Devi
61	Shri Ashok Vajpeyi
62	Prof. C.T. Indra
63	Dr. Sitanshu Yashaschandra
64	Dr. Motilal Jotwani
65	Prof. Vidya Niwas Mishra
66	Shri Ramakant Rath
67	Dr. Prabhakar Shrotriya	Ex-officio
68	Dr. K. Satchidanandan
69	Shri Gurdial Singh
70	Shri Keshubhai Desai
71	Shri Manager Pandey
72	Dr. Gopi Chand Narang
73	Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra	Chairman
74	Amiya Deb
75	Shri Shankar Sarda
76	Prof. Dinesh Singh
77	Shri Nityanand Tiwari
78	Shri R. Shourie Rajan