A 'super jury' met on 23 April to decide the fate of some awards handed out at the Goafest Creative Abby 2013 on 6 April.
The 'super jury' comprised jury chairs of the 11 award categories - Agnello Dias, Carlton D’silva, Josy Paul, K S Chakravarthy, Nitish Tiwari, Piyush Panjwani, Prasoon Joshi, Prashant Kalyankar, Rakshin Patel and Sonal Dabral. Senthil Kumar was also supposed to be at the meet, but was travelling and couldn't make it.
The jury decided to reinstate awards handed out at the event, annulling the recall of certain awards and comlaints against others.
In a prepared statement, Shashi Sinha, chairperson, AGC, said, "After due deliberations the 'super jury' unanimously decided that they believed there had been enough time given between the short listing of entries and the final judging for feedback and objections of any kind to be raised. Indeed all such feedback was accepted and acted upon before the final awards were presented. The super jury felt that the sanctity of the award process needs to be maintained and all the deadlines should be respected and followed. Therefore any speculation after the Goafest/Abby Awards cannot be entertained."
The note further said, "The AGC has always maintained that the Abbys are industry awards for the industry - and the final say must be that of the creative fraternity. In light of the above decision by the super jury it has hence been decided that all awards given will stand. In addition, awards that had been rescinded due to similar complaints for DHL (agency BBDO Proximity) and Electrolux (agency DDB Mudra Group) will be reinstated. The AGC has also noted that for the future rules pertaining to reviews will be further clarified and strictly adhered to."
