Friday, May 13 2005 11:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (May 13, 2005) dismissed a petition seeking deletion of the word 'Sindh' from the national anthem and imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the petitioner Sanjeev Bhatnagar for indulging in frivolous litigation.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti and Justice P K Balasubramanyan rejected the petition in which Bhatnagar had argued for the deletion of the word 'Sindh' from Rabindranath Tagore's 'Jana Gana Mana.." saying it was the name a province in Pakistan, which could raise an international dispute over inclusion of its territory in the Indian national anthem.

He had asked the word 'Sindh' be substituted with another word like "Kashmir".

Appearing for the All India Sindhi Council, noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani, a Sindhi himself, said the petition contained "blatant lies, irresponsible statements" and propounded the interest of Pakistan.

Rejecting the apprehension of an international arbitration by Pakistan over inclusion of the word 'Sindh' in the anthem, he said the neighbouring State had never even thought of doing so in the last 55 years but the petitioner seemed to know in advance what it was going to do in future.

Attorney General Milon Banerjee said the Constituent Assembly in 1950 had adopted the national anthem when Sindh was already a part of Pakistan but said Tagore himself had clarified that the poem had no reference to any particular geographical area but the cultures in India.

He said, "Any tampering with the poetic language or the text would stir up a hornets' nest encouraging demands for inclusion or deletion of words in the national anthem."

The Apex Court had issued a notice to the Centre on the petition on January 3 and reserved its order on April 27 after hearing arguments of the parties concerned.