Madras HC orders singing of Vande Mataram in schools, offices

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered singing of the national song Vande Mataram in all educational institutions at least once in a week.

The court ordered that the song should be sung preferably on Monday or Friday.

The order was passed on a writ petition filed by one K. Veeramani seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu Teacher's Recruitment Board (TRB) to award him one mark to the question on the language in which the national song was written.

In the eligibility test for teachers, held in 2013, he had answered that the national song was written in Bengali while the answer key stated it as Sanskrit.

According to the petitioner, he was not recruited for the teacher post as the cut off mark was 90 and he had scored 89 owing to the wrong key answer.

The Advocate General clarified to the court that the original language of Vande Mataram was Sanskrit, but it was written in Bengali script.

The court also ordered that the National Song be sung in all government offices and institutions, private companies and factories at least once a month.

The court ordered that the national song can also be translated in Tamil and sung if people find it difficult to sing in Bengali or in Sanskrit.

The court also said that people or organisations should not be compelled to sing the national song.

The court also ordered TRB to include the petitioner in the recruitment process.