No criminal or punitive action should be taken against anyone who refuses to sing Vande Mataram on grounds of religious belief or conscience, India’s Supreme Court has said. The court has also asked the central government to respond on the matter.
A three-member bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana gave the message in oral observations during the hearing of a case on Vande Mataram on Tuesday.
The judges said orally that defining a national song lies outside the court’s jurisdiction, but that the court could examine whether a citizen who does not want to sing it for reasons of conscience is being compelled to.
The writ petition was filed by the Carnatic musician T M Krishna. It challenges the constitutional validity of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act 2026.
The amended law gives Vande Mataram the same legal protection as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, and provides for up to three years’ imprisonment for preventing or disrupting its singing. The home ministry has also issued a directive making it compulsory to sing all six stanzas of Vande Mataram, rather than the first two, on government and official platforms.
Arguing for the petitioner, senior advocate S Muralidhar told the court that the last four stanzas of Vande Mataram contain explicit references to Hindu deities. Compelling people to sing every stanza in a secular state, and threatening them with punishment if they do not, therefore violates citizens’ freedom of expression and of religion, he said.
During the hearing Justice Joymalya Bagchi referred to the landmark 1986 judgment in the Bijoe Emmanuel case. In that well-known case the Supreme Court held that if someone, because of religious belief, does not join in singing the national anthem but simply stands in a quiet and respectful manner, that can in no way be treated as an offence.
The court reminded the centre that this established precedent still stands, and said it expected the same principle to apply to Vande Mataram.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report