Supreme Court okayed ‘Sindh’ in Anthem in 2005: Bombay HC

The word “Sindh” in the National Anthem is correctly used, observed the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, citing a 2005 judgment of the apex court.

A division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice Rajesh Ketkar observed that the apex court had decided that “Sindh” will remain in our National Anthem.

“The Supreme Court has said that it is correctly used. We will go by the Supreme Court order,” remarked Justice Desai. The court was hearing a PIL filed by a retired professor, Shreekanth Malushte, seeking replacement of the word “Sindh” by “Sindhu”.
On Wednesday, the counsel for the central government sought some more time to file reply. the High Court on August 17 had directed the ministries of Home Affairs, Culture and Information and Broadcasting to file their replies.

The petitioner’s advocate, Niranjan Mogre, pointed out information received by them under the RTI from the Union Home Ministry which said that the correct version of the Anthem was with the word “Sindhu”.

“The secretary (Home Ministry) could have made a mistake. We have to go by the SC order,” remarked Justice Desai.
The court has asked the Centre to look into the SC judgment before filing its reply.