The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Sanjeev Bhatnagar seeking a review of the apex court order rejecting his plea for deletion of the word "Sindh" from the national anthem.
'Deleting Sindh from anthem will destroy it'
A bench comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti and Justice P K Balasubramanyan dismissed the review petition refusing to have a relook at the apex court's May 13 judgement holding that national anthem was an 'immortal classic,' not subject to change.
Bhatnagar had sought the deletion of the word "Sindh" from the anthem on the ground that it was now the territory of Pakistan.
The Bench, terming the public interest litigation filed by Bhatnagar as a "publicity interest litigation," had imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on him for "wasting the valuable time of the court".
External Link: More on National Anthem
The Court had agreed with Attorney General Milon Banerjee and senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who had contended that any tampering with the original script of the anthem would lead to its distortion and a great deal of discontent among the large population of Sindhis in India and abroad.
Justice Lahoti, writing for the Bench, had said, "national anthem is the representative of the ethos of the country. Any classic, once created, becomes immortal and inalienable; even its creator may not like making changes into it. Any tampering with the script of the poem would be showing disrespect to the great poet Rabindranath Tagore."
