The Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition questioning the Central government's recent instruction that all schools may start their day by singing all six stanzas of the national song, Vande Mataram, including stanzas that refer to Hindu deities.
A Bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Poonacha said it was not inclined to entertain the PIL since there was no statutory mandate to sing the national song.
The Court also took note of a submission by Additional Solicitor General Aravind Kamath that the Union Home Ministry's advisory in the matter also included the word "may", indicating that it was not mandatory.
Further, the ASG also informed the Court that a similar PIL was recently dismissed by the Supreme Court.
"Concededly, the national song is not covered under any statutory framework. ASG also points out that the orders mentioned the word "may" and it is not mandatory. The performance of national song is not mandatory unlike the national anthem. He also points out similar plea was dismissed by Supreme Court," the Court observed before dismissing the plea.
The petitioner, advocate Somashekhar Rajavamshi, had argued that the Centre's recent advisory effectively compelled children in State funded schools to participate in the daily singing of devotional songs.
He maintained that he does not dispute the patriotic character of the first two stanzas of the song. This truncated version of the song was usually sung as the national song until the Central government last month issued a protocol advisory prescribing all six stanzas of the original rendition as the national song.
The petitioner had questioned the mandate to schools to sing the four additional stanzas of the song, which refer to Hindu deities.
In particular, the petitioner submitted that stanza 5 of the song now prescribed as the official version by the Centre, expressly invokes Hindu goddesses Durga, Kamala (Lakshmi) and Vani (Saraswati) by name.
This, he contended, violated Articles 25-28 (freedom of conscience, prohibition of religious instruction in State-funded institutions) and Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution, as well as the secular basic structure of the Constitution.
He argued that the government cannot introduce a religiously loaded version of the national song on all citizens and school-going children by an executive fiat as it violates the Constitutional scheme.
He, therefore, sought a declaration from the Court that the Centre's February 2026 protocol notification in the matter was unconstitutional in so far as it prescribes stanzas 3-6 of the Vande Mataram as part of the official version and mandates its daily rendition in schools.
After the Court today expressed that it was not inclined to entertain the petition, Rajavamshi argued that his PIL was fundamentally different from the petition that was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
However, the Court made it clear that it was not inclined to exercise its discretion to entertain the PIL matter or spend more judicial time in analysing a song that was not mandatory.
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