Anthem row: Should we wear patriotism on our sleeve, asks SC

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 23 

The controversy surrounding the Supreme Court’s order to play the National Anthem in cinema halls took a curious turn on Monday with one of the judges on the three-judge Bench raising questions over making it mandatory. 

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“Should we wear patriotism on our sleeve?” asked Justice DY Chandrachud. “Next thing will be that people should not wear T-shirts and shorts to movies because it will amount to disrespect to the National Anthem... where do we stop this moral policing?” asked Justice Chandrachud, who is part of the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. 

Justice AM Khanwilkar is the third judge on the Bench which is hearing petitions seeking recall the November 30, 2016 order passed by another Bench headed Justice Misra which had justified it on the ground that it would “instil a feeling of committed patriotism and nationalism”. 

“There is no mandate that people should stand up when the National Anthem is sung in a cinema hall. This is obviously because a cinema hall is a place for entertainment... people go to cinema halls for undiluted entertainment. Society needs entertainment,” Justice Chandrachud said referring to the Flag Code. “You don’t have to stand up at a cinema hall to be perceived as patriotic,” he added. 

Cultural and social values can’t be enforced through court orders, he said. 

On behalf of the Centre, Attorney-General KK Venugopal supported playing of National Anthem in cinema halls even as the Bench indicated it was open to modifying its November 2016 order. 

He, however, said it should be left open to the government to take a call on its own discretion if the National Anthem should be played in theatres and if people needed to stand up for it.

The Bench asked the Centre to consider amending the National Flag Code for regulating the playing of the National Anthem in cinema halls across the country and take a call uninfluenced by its earlier order. 

The Bench indicated that it may modify its order of December 1, 2016, by replacing the word “shall” with “may”, making playing of the National Anthem optional. It indicated that it was for the government to take the call in this regard and posted it for hearing on January 9 next year. 

Acting on a PIL filed by one Shyam Narayan Chouksey, the top court had also barred printing of the anthem or a part of it on any object and displaying it in such a manner at places which may be “disgraceful to its status and amount to disrespect”.