CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday directed the centre to file a counter-affidavit to the public interest litigation (PIL) petition praying for quashing a GO dated January 28, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) regarding the rendition of Vande Mataram and National Anthem during state functions.
The direction was issued by the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan while hearing the PIL filed by Ananya Radhakrishnan of Chennai.
The bench directed the MHA, union home minister, chief secretary and public secretary of Tamil Nadu to file the counter-affidavit within eight weeks and adjourned the hearing accordingly.
The petition was filed in the wake of the Tamizh Thaai Vazhthu being relegated to the third position during the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on May 10, contrary to the established convention followed for several decades in the state.
The petitioner stated that the Tamizh Thaai Vazhthu, composed by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai in 1891, was formally declared as the state song of Tamil Nadu on December 17, 2021, representing the linguistic, cultural and civilisational identity of the people of TN.
She said the GO merely prescribes that the national song shall precede the national anthem wherever both are recited and noted that the practice of commencing state functions in TN with the Tamizh Thaai Vazhthu forms an integral part of the state’s cultural and administrative identity and has historically coexisted harmoniously with complete respect for national symbols and constitutional values.
Judicial intervention is necessary to prevent the continued departure from this convention and to preserve the constitutional balance between national unity and regional cultural identity, she added.
Anticipatory bail granted to ex-min K C Veeramani
Chennai: Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan of Madras HC on Friday granted conditional anticipatory bail to former AIADMK minister K C Veeramani in a case filed against him and others for allegedly assaulting a man from Vellore town (Ramamoorthy) when he tried to raise objections against accepting his nomination papers on April 7 during poll-time scrutiny at the Jolarpet seat. Veeramani submitted that he was not present when the incident was alleged to have occurred and the FIR was filed to tarnish his reputation. Two others — Ramesh and Dakshinamoorthy — were also granted anticipatory bail. All of them were directed to appear before the Natrampalli station daily for two weeks. ENS