The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Union ministries of home, external affairs and human resources and development on a public interest litigation petition seeking deletion of the word 'Sindh' from the national anthem.
The PIL, filed by Sanjeev Bhatnagar, contended that Sindh was now part of Pakistan and hence should not be mentioned in the national anthem. It should be substituted with 'Kashmir' or some other word, the petitioner said.
A Bench, comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti and Justice G P Mathur, issued the notice, despite the Centre, in its informal response, stating that the word 'Sindh' represented the culture and not the province.
It said exclusion of 'Sindh' from the national anthem would hurt the people of the Sindhi community, whose contribution to the national cause could not be overlooked.
Contesting the statement, Bhatnagar argued that the author of the national anthem, Rabindranath Tagore, had himself translated his work into Hindi stating therein that the word 'Sindh' referred to the province and not the culture.
"Who would be more accurate in translation and interpretation of a particular part of the anthem than the author himself?" the petitioner asked, while stating that the national anthem suffered the fallacy of text.
The Centre said the national anthem, as it is sung today, was adopted by the Constituent Assembly in the august presence of top national leaders on January 24, 1950 despite all of them being aware of the fact that 'Sindh' was part of Pakistan at that time.
Granting relief to the petitioner would result in demand from other quarters for inclusion and exclusion of words in the national anthem, it argued.
