HC says Vande Mataram should be sung in all Educational institutions once a week

In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court today ordered that the National Song 'Vande Mataram' should be played and sung in all educational institutions, including schools, colleges and Universities, at least once a week. On a writ petition filed by one K Veeramani, seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu Teacher's Recruitment Board (TRB) to award one mark to him to a question on which language the song was written, Mr Justice M V Muralidharan also ordered that the song should be sung at least once a week, preferably on Mondays or Fridays.

The petitioner had submitted that when he took the Teacher Eligibility Test in 2013, he had answered that the National Song was written in Bengali, but the answer key gave it as Sanskrit. He said he was awarded 89 marks in the test conducted for the post of BT Assistant by the TRB, but the minimum eligibility mark was fixed as 90 due to which he lost the opportunity of getting recruited to the post. Veeramani further claimed that for the mistake made by the board, he lost his opportunity of being appointed as a BT Assistant.

Opposing his submission, the Government Pleader contended that the song was originally written in Sanskrit and was translated later in Bengali. To clear the ambiguity, the Judge directed the Advocate General (AG) to find out the right answer. On July 13, when the plea came up for hearing the AG clarified that the original language of 'Vande Mataram' was Sanskrit, but written in Bengali script.