RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad has been se­lect­ed to re­ceive the Pravasi Bharatiya Sam­man Award (PB­SA)–In­dia's high­est over­seas award–be­stowed on peo­ple of In­di­an ori­gin.

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad is ex­pect­ed to trav­el to the home­land of his an­ces­tors lat­er this month, along with his wife, Camille, daugh­ter, Aman­da Seep­er­sad, moth­er, Cham­pa Seep­er­sad, and his sis­ter Car­ol Seep­er­sad-Ma­haraj.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day, Jus­tice Seep­er­sad said he re­ceived for­mal no­ti­fi­ca­tion of the award on yes­ter­day. He is the third judge to re­ceive the ho­n­our and the first non-politi­cian to col­lect the award. He fol­lows in the foot­steps of for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day and Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Dr Lenny Saith, Win­ston Dook­er­an, and the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture. 

Seep­er­sad said the ho­n­our was un­ex­pect­ed.

"The be­stow­ing of this pres­ti­gious award to the great-grand­child of in­den­tured labour­ers is un­ex­pect­ed and wel­comed. This ho­n­our is the re­sult of the in­cred­i­ble op­por­tu­ni­ties which have been af­ford­ed to me in this land of my birth," he said.

"Stand­ing side by side with my broth­ers of every creed and race, I have ben­e­fit­ted not on­ly from my rich an­ces­tral tra­di­tions but from the di­ver­si­ty of ex­pe­ri­ences and the free world-class ed­u­ca­tion which I have re­ceived in this blessed coun­try."

Notwith­stand­ing the chal­lenges in T&T, Jus­tice Seep­er­sad said "This in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion has re­mind­ed me that here in this Re­pub­lic, with faith, hon­esty, dis­ci­pline, tol­er­ance and pro­duc­tion, all things are tru­ly pos­si­ble."

Since the award start­ed in 2003, on­ly two out of the 136 awardees were judges–one from Fi­ji and an ap­pel­late judge from Zim­bab­we.

"It's a bi-an­nu­al award and this year there are 30 awardees from around the globe with the Pres­i­dent of Guyana be­ing the chief guest," he added.

The PB­SA is con­sid­ered to be the high­est ho­n­our con­ferred on over­seas In­di­ans. 

On the Min­istry of Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs, Gov­ern­ment of In­dia, the 17th edi­tion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Di­vas (PBD) Con­ven­tion is sched­uled to be held from Jan­u­ary 8 to 10, 2023, at In­dore, Mad­hya Pradesh. The Pravasi Bharatiya Sam­man Awards will be con­ferred by the Pres­i­dent of In­dia at the PBD Con­ven­tion in the vale­dic­to­ry ses­sion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Di­vas cel­e­bra­tions.