CHENNAI: Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a petition demanding restoration of the original lines in Thamizh Thai Vazhthu (Tamil anthem) penned by poet Manonmaniyam Sundaranar.
The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu dismissed the 2007 petition filed by J Mohanraj, general secretary of Jebamani Janata Party demanding restoration of the lines that were deleted from the original version.
Saying that there was undue delay in filing the petition as the changes were made in 1972, the bench dismissed it. Government Pleader (GP) P Muthukumar informed the court that it was within the powers of the State government to make modifications to the anthem.
A counter-affidavit filed by Department of Tamil Development and Information, stated certain lines of Tamizh Thai Vazhthu were deleted only with the intention of not belittling other languages. Countering the averments in the petition, it explained the third and fourth lines of the poem were interchanged for better reading.
The song was reconstructed in 1972 to omit certain lines which mentioned that Sanskrit language had become obsolete and is not a living language anymore. The omission was made only to tell the world that Tamil did not harbour any hatred towards other languages