The Supreme Court on Tuesday (October 27, 2026) sought a response from the Union government on two separate petitions filed by a Phule-Ambedkarite and a former Kerala bureaucrat challenging government orders imposing the six-stanza Vande Mataram on the people .
The court had referred to its 1986 judgment in Bijoe Emmanuel versus State of Kerala, which had upheld the right to religious freedom, constitutional tolerance and silent objection. Borkar has argued that the six-stanza version introduced by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in his novel ‘Anandamath’ would promote enmity and conflict between different communities by advancing the supremacy of a dominant community. Mr. The petition has sought the court to intervene to quash the two orders, and stop any manner of compelling citizens, particularly school children, from singing or playing the six-stanza Vande Mataram.
The petitions argued that government orders had imposed a “sectarian prayer to particular goddesses of one particular religion as the National Song” which violated fundamental rights of religion and attracted the criminal law. The fabric of unity and harmony would be mutilated forever, he has said. It said the court could direct that the two-stanza, standalone version of ‘Vande Mataram’ alone be recognised, treated, performed and sung as the National Song.
