PRAYAGRAJ, April 20 -- Nearly six months after being declared the winner of a district-level painting competition, a 21-year-old undergraduate student from Prayagraj has moved the Allahabad high court over the non-payment of the promised Rs.51,000 cash prize, prompting the court to seek a response from the Uttar Pradesh government. Taking cognisance of the plea, a division bench of Justice Saral Srivastava and Justice Garima Prasad directed the state counsel to obtain instructions from the authorities concerned on the alleged delay in releasing the award amount. The matter has been listed for further hearing on April 23. The petition was filed by Diksha Mishra, a resident of Naini in Prayagraj. According to the plea, the state culture department had organised several events under the "Seva Pakhwada-2025" programme between September 17 and October 2, 2025. A district-level painting competition was held in Prayagraj on September 29, in which Diksha, a BA final-year student of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Government Post Graduate College, Naini, secured first place in the senior category. The petition stated that a cash prize of Rs.51,000 was announced for the winner. While Diksha was given a trophy and certificate during a prize distribution function on October 6, 2025, the cash amount was allegedly withheld on the grounds that funds had not yet been released. "I, along with my younger brother Aditya, have been making repeated visits for the past six months, submitting representations to college authorities, the district administration and the culture department, besides writing to state culture minister Jaiveer Singh through registered post, email and IGRS mode, but to no avail," Diksha said. She said she also approached the joint nodal in-charge of the competition, Prof Shyamji Sonkar, the office of the District Inspector of Schools (DIoS), and officials of the tourism and culture department, but did not receive any clear timeline for payment. Her father, Nirmal Kumar Mishra, is a farmer with 2 bigha of land in Shankargarh. Diksha further said that she lodged a complaint through the IGRS portal and received an official response, but the prize money was still not released. "Eventually, I had no option but to approach the court," she said. Her counsel, Piyush Pandey, submitted that the state government had allegedly released around Rs.2.49 lakh per district for prize distribution on September 30, 2025, a day after the competition, to the District Tourism and Culture Council concerned. He said this information was shared by the Directorate of Culture in February 2026 in response to the IGRS complaint. Despite this, the petitioner has allegedly not received the awarded amount so far. The petition names the State of UP and six others as respondents, including the director of the Directorate of Culture, the DM and chief development officer of Prayagraj, the DIoS, the District Tourism and Culture Council, and Prof Sonkar. In its April 9 order, the HC directed the additional chief standing counsel to place instructions from the concerned officials before the bench on the next date of hearing. Meanwhile, DIoS Prayagraj PN Singh said the cash award was received at the end of March this year. "All winners were asked to collect the cheques and they have done so, but Diksha Mishra informed that since she has moved the high court, she would proceed further as per the court order," Singh said....