Playing of national anthem will no longer be mandatory in cinema halls before the start of a movie show. The Supreme Court on Tuesday modified its previous order to make it optional for theatre owners.
On November 30, 2016, the court directed movie halls across the country to mandatorily play the national anthem before screening of a film. The order also asked the audience to stand and sing the anthem. The doors of the hall were to be shut during the period when the anthem is played, and the image of national flag was to be displayed on the screen.
The order created major controversy as people who did not sing the anthem were roughed up by so-called nationalists.
The turning point arrived on Tuesday with an affidavit filed by the Centre telling the court that the issue of where and how to show respect to national anthem is under consideration of a high-level committee comprising 10 Union Ministries and departments and a report is expected in six months. Attorney General KK Venugopal who presented the Centre’s case even suggested that instead of making the anthem rule mandatory, cinema halls could be given the option to play the anthem till such time the committee prepared its report.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra accepted the suggestion and decided to modify its earlier order to the extent of making it optional for cinema hall owners to play the anthem. The court also clarified that if the cinema hall chose to play the national anthem, the audience will have to stand as a mark of respect to the motherland. With this direction, the court disposed the PIl pending with it.
The PIl petitioner Shyam Narayan Chouksey, who was seeking guidelines for showing respect to the national anthem, urged the court to keep the matter pending as there is no law that punishes persons who do not stand up when the national anthem is played. He prayed for a law on national anthem similar to the one dealing with disrespect to national flag where a person could face penal consequences for insulting the flag.
Venugopal said that the committee constituted by the Centre is also examining the scope of making amendments to the present law as well. The court permitted the petitioner to make representation to the committee. The 12-member inter-ministerial committee will be headed by BR Sharma, Special Secretary and will have Joint Secretary-level officers from 11 Ministries and departments of the Central government. The Committee will meet on January 19.