सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने कहा: ‘वंदे मातरम्’ के सभी अंतरा न गाने पर आपराधिक कार्रवाई नहीं होनी चाहिए

NewsPerson who does not sing all stanzas of Vande Mataram should not face criminal action: Supreme Court observes

The Court asked the Central government to respond to Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna's petition within two weeks.

The Supreme on Tuesday asked the Union government to respond to a plea challenging the constitutional validity of a 2026 amendment to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, which makes intentionally preventing the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ or disrupting an assembly engaged in its singing punishable with up to three years in jail.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana asked the government to respond to Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna's petition within two weeks.

Pertinently, Justice Bagchi remarked during the hearing that the Supreme Court's earlier ruling in Bijoe Emmanuel case protecting those who choose not to sing the national anthem continues to hold the field.

Hence, a conscientious objector who does not recite one or all stanzas of Vande Mataram should not face criminal prosecution, the judge indicated.

"We would expect that the law of the land, as declared by this Court in Bijoe Emmanuel, will govern the act of the statute. The declaration of law in Bijoe Emmanuel has till now not been questioned," the judge said.

Krishna moved the Court questioning Section 3 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 (the law protecting national symbols), as amended in 2026.

His plea also challenged the directions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs requiring the complete six-stanza version of Vande Mataram to be sung at specified government, ceremonial and cultural occasions.

The amended law makes it punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, fine, or both to intentionally prevent the singing of the National Anthem or National Song, or to cause disturbance to an assembly engaged in such singing.

Krishna argued that the Centre's directions go beyond regulating protocol and that the amendment effectively compels citizens to participate in singing the last four stanzas.

According to the plea, the stanzas contain references to Hindu deities including Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati.

"In consequence and in effect, the Impugned State Action does not merely regulate national protocol or prescribe a uniform code of conduct for public functions. It compels a ceremony of assent to a symbol whose last four stanzas, Stanzas 3 to 6, are expressly devotional, deity-invoking and non-secular," contended the plea.

As per the plea, the measures were violative of fundamental rights under Articles 14 (equality), 15(1) (protection against discrimination), 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression), 21 (life and personal liberty) and 25(1) (freedom of conscience and religion).

The plea relied on the Supreme Court's 1986 judgment in Bijoe Emmanuel v State of Kerala, where the Court protected schoolchildren who stood up respectfully during the National Anthem but did not sing it because of their religious beliefs.

According to the petition, criminal penalty makes the issue fundamentally different from a mere protocol governing national functions.

"By mandating the rendition of all six stanzas under penal sanction, the State transforms what is unquestionably a contested historical symbol into a compelled orthodoxy," it said.

The petition also argued that the first two stanzas were originally composed as a separate patriotic lyric, while the remaining four were added when the song was incorporated into Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Anandamath.

According to the plea, the later stanzas are both religiously and musically distinct from the first two.

The plea further pointed to the 1937 decision of the Congress Working Committee to restrict national gatherings to the first two stanzas following objections from Muslim members.

As per the petition,

"The measure (2026 directions) is formally neutral but, manifestly, substantively coded: it sends a signal of majoritarian religious alignment and inflicts expressive subordination on believing Muslims and other conscientious objectors."

Krishna has sought directions to strike down the amended Section 3 and declare that only the first two of the six stanzas of Vande Mataram constitute the National Song.

Additionally, he has sought interim protection from the operation of the challenged provisions pending a final decision on his plea.

SCROLL FOR NEXT

Powered by Nyaya 247 News