Delhi HC sends notice to Centre on plea seeking national anthem status for 'Vande Mataram'

After a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Delhi High Court, seeking direction to declare that the song 'Vande Mataram' be honoured equally with 'Jana-Gana-Mana' and have equal status, the HC on Wednesday issued a notice to the Central Government on the same. The matter has been listed by the court for 9 November 2022. 

The PIL also sought direction to both the Centre and State Governments to ensure that 'Jana-Gana-Mana' and 'Vande Mataram' are played and sung in all schools and educational institutions on every working day and also to frame guidelines in the spirit of the Constituent Assembly resolution dated 24 January 1950, read with the judgment passed by the Madras High Court and Supreme Court of India.

"'Vande Mataram' was the whole nation's thought and motto when India gained independence from British rule during the independence movement. Large rallies, fermenting initially in major cities, worked themselves up into a patriotic fervour by shouting the slogan Vande Mataram'. The British, fearful of the potential danger of incited populace, at one point in time, banned the utterance of 'Vande Mataram' in public places and imprisoned many independence activists for disobeying the proscription," the plea stated. 

Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore sang Vande Mataram in the Calcutta Congress session in 1896. Dakshinacharan Sen sang it five years later in another session of the Congress in Calcutta in 1901. In 1905, Sarla Devi Chaudharani sang Vande Mataram in the Banaras session of Congress. Lala Lajpat Rai started a newspaper named 'Vande Mataram' in Lahore.

Delhi HC dismisses plea seeking to declare 'Vande Mataram' National Anthem 

In the year 2019, the Delhi High Court had dismissed a plea seeking direction to the Centre to declare 'Vande Mataram' the national anthem, at par with "Jana Gana Mana", or the national song.  A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar had said it finds no reason to entertain this petition while exercising its powers under Article 226 of the Constitution. "We see no reason to give direction to the respondent (Centre) to declare Vande Mataram as national anthem or national song," the bench had said. Even in October 2017, a PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to treat the national song at par with the national anthem.