Madras HC makes singing of Vande Mataram must in TN

In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court on Tuesday said that "Vande Mataram" should be played or sung in schools, colleges, government offices and even in private organisation in Tamil Nadu.
 
However, the court also issued order that the national song should be sung at least once a week in the schools and in offices the Vande Matram should be crooned once in a month.
 
When a writ petition, filed by K Veeramani, who faced an issue while took part in government's Teacher Eligibility Test in 2013, Justice M V Muralidharan also said that "Vande Mataram" could be translated in Tamil if it is difficult to sing.
 
The Justice also made it clear that the schools and organisation should not force or compel anyone to sing the national song if they find it difficult in warbling that.
 
In his petition, Veeramani said that he could not get through the eligibility test as he lost by single mark of the total 90 after he answered the "Vande Mataram" was written in Bengali.
 
Claiming that the song was scripted in Bengali, the petitioner alleged that evaluaters of Teacher's Recruitment Board have committed mistake in the answer key to the test by mentioning that the correct answer as Sanskrit.
 
The plea also claimed that due to the mistake by the board, the petioner lost his opportunity of being included in the teacher's recruitment procedure.
 
Though the government lawyer claimed that the song was originally written in Sanskrit and was translated later in Bengali, Justice ordered the Advocate General (AG) to find the correct answer to clear the confusion.
 
When the plea came up for hearing the AG stated that the original language of "Vande Mataram" was Sanskrit but written in Bengali script.
 
The judge then ordered the authorities to include Veeramani in the teacher selection process besides making compulsory to play or sing the national son in schools and offices.