Ambedkarite activist BD Borkar has moved the Supreme Court against the Home Ministry’s January 28 and July 9, 2026 orders prescribing the six-stanza Vande Mataram and the 2026 amendment to the national-honour law, arguing that the additional stanzas invoke Hindu deities and that the MHA has no power to change the National Song by executive order.
Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has written to Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar advising reconsideration of the State’s September 8 order limiting the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at government functions. The Governor contends the order is contrary to the Union’s protocol on the National Song and the 2026 amendment to the national-honour law, and that, under Articles 162, 256 and 257, a State cannot by executive instruction prescribe a version inconsistent with the Union’s on a subject outside its legislative competence.
The Karnataka High Court has deferred, by three weeks, a PIL challenging the State government’s September 8 order limiting the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at government functions, after the State pointed out that a related matter, TM Krishna’s challenge to the Centre’s Vande Mataram circular and the 2026 amendment, is pending before the Supreme Court. The petitioner argued that a State cannot decide the content of a national song; the State defended the order as guidance, not a mandate.
Hearing Carnatic musician TM Krishna’s challenge to the Centre’s circular on the singing of Vande Mataram and the extension of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act to it, the Supreme Court indicated it would examine the matter to the extent penal consequences are involved, observing that a person who believes that singing it infringes their rights under Articles 25 or 26 cannot be subjected to punishment, and that it is not for courts to declare what the National Song is. A remark by the Solicitor General drew strong objection from the petitioner’s counsel.
The Madras High Court sought responses from the Union and Tamil Nadu governments on a plea challenging the treatment of Tamil Thai Vaazhthu during official functions. The petition questions a Union circular allegedly resulting in the State Song being rendered after Vande Mataram and the National Anthem.
The Calcutta High Court has issued a stay on the proceedings of an FIR lodged against ten BJP MLAs accused of insulting the National Anthem during a recent assembly session. This development comes amidst a heated political face-off between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP legislators in the assembly. Also read- Calcutta High […]
