Friday, October 21 2005 17:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Oct 21, 2005) decided to examine whether the National Anthem could be exploited commercially by Bollywood and how the actors should respond to it when featured in films.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia said it will go into the question of use of national anthem in films as well as examine whether actors in films should stand up when it is being sung.

"We will hear the petition on all points except the certificate issued for screening of the film by the Central Board for Film Certification", the Bench said while hearing a petition seeking to review its verdict given for the Hindi blockbuster 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum' in which it had held that the audience was not required to stand up when the national anthem was sung as a part of the movie.

The review petition was filed by one Shyam Narayan Chouksey against the verdict of the Apex Court which had set aside the Madhya Pradesh High Court decision asking the producer and Director of the film Yash Johar and Karan Johar to delete the part where the national anthem was sung in the movie.

They had successfully challenged the High Court order saying that since the national anthem was part of the movie, the audience was not required to stand up.