Supreme Court rejects plea to make National Anthem must in courts too

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain at this stage an application from BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay for a direction to make the playing of national anthem compulsory for all the courts throughout the country.

A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitav Roy refused to entertain the application after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the SC the application is not in an appropriate format and suggested that the application be filed as a proper petition. The court accepted the same and rejected the petition on technical grounds.

The petitioner mentioned the application before the bench, which on Wednesday by an interim order made playing of the national anthem compulsory for all the cinema halls in the country.

He requested to slightly modify the order or to pass another to make the national anthem compulsory for all the subordinate courts, district courts and higher courts, including the Supreme Court, as it will definitely promote fraternity, unity and national integration.

He also submitted that as a guardian of the Constitution, it is duty of the apex court to take appropriate steps to achieve the great golden goals as set out in Preamble of the Constitution.

With a view to instilling a sense of patriotism among the citizens, the court had said, “All the cinema halls in India shall play the national anthem before feature film starts and all present in the hall are obliged to stand up to show respect to the national anthem. Prior to the national anthem is played or sung in the cinema hall on the screen, the entry and exit doors shall remain closed so that no one can create any kind of disturbance which will amount to disrespect to the national anthem. After the national anthem is played or sung, the doors can be opened. When the anthem shall be played in the Cinema Halls, it shall be with the National Flag on the screen. The abridge version of the national anthem made by any one for whatever reason shall not be played or displayed.” It also said no person should take commercial benefits by playing the anthem and that it should not be dramatised.