In 1996, T. Padmanabhan, who was given the Award for a book of short stories in Malayalam, declined on the grounds that the Akademi had not shown interest in supporting the short story form, although he noted that he was grateful to the Akademi for the honour.
In 1996, T. Padmanabhan, who received an award for a collection of short stories in Malayalam, declined the honor because the Akademi had not shown interest in supporting the short story genre. He expressed gratitude to the Akademi for the recognition but was disappointed by their lack of support for this form of literature.