Justice Misra as HC judge had earlier banned Karan Johar film for ‘disrespecting’ national anthem

NEW DELHI: This is not the first time Supreme Court judge Justice Dipak Misra has delivered an order banning commercial exploitation of the national anthem. While heading a bench in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, he had banned screening of Karan Johar’s blockbuster ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ before the SC set aside the verdict.

Taking strong exception to the sequence in the film in which a boy sings one part of the anthem and his mother completes it, Justice Misra -- writing the judgement -- had then held that “the national anthem has been sung as if it is a song of advertisement for a commercial purpose” and banned the film’s screening unless the scene was deleted.

“The boy sings one part and the mother sings the rest, may be the last five words... But the fact remains that the boy says 'sorry' in the midst of the anthem and mother after some time completes the same. All this has been done to create a dramatic impact in the picture for the benefit of the producer. This should not be allowed to be done for the popularisation of the national anthem as has been understood in this great country,” Justice Misra said.

The Madhya Pradesh bench had watched the film and concluded that it disrespected the national anthem as the audience in the film did not stand up when the boy starts singing the anthem.

“Watching the necessary part of the picture we do not see any laudable purpose. On the contrary, it is for benefit of the individual. Collective sensitivity and national feeling cannot be violated. Corrosive attitude in regard to honour of the national sentiment is totally impermissible. The dramatisation of the national anthem is against constitutional philosophy,” Justice Misra wrote in his verdict.

“That apart in our considered view the national anthem which is the glory of the country and portrays the unity of the country cannot be shown in a variety show or a cultural programme of a school as an item... The national anthem is a song of dignity. It is an anthem of honour. It projects the sacrosanctity and integrity of India, it epitomises the oneness of the nation and it makes every citizen to be sensitively aware of the national feeling,” Justice Misra had said.

Karan Johar then approached SC challenging HC order. A three-judge bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India V N Khare set aside the order after the Centre contended that audience does not need to stand up when the singing of national anthem is depicted in a film.

As the three-judge bench of SC had set aside the HC order allowing the film to be screened, people aggrieved by today’s order may ask the court to refer the issue of commercial exploitation of national anthem to a larger bench.