The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking adirection to the Centre to declare “Vande Mataram” the nationalanthem, on par with “Jana Gana Mana”, or the national song.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C HariShankar said it finds no reason to entertain this petition while exercising itspowers under Article 226 of the Constitution.
“We see no reason to give direction to the respondent(Centre) to declare Vande Mataram as national anthem or national song,”the bench said.
The plea, filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini KumarUpadhyay, wanted “Vande Mataram”, written by Bankim ChandraChatterjee, be given the same respect as the national anthem, “Jana GanaMana” penned by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.