Picture : ANI/X
President Droupadi Murmu gave assent to a Bill that criminalises intentional disruption or prevention of the singing of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’, giving it the same legal protection currently accorded to the national anthem, a government statement said.
With the president’s assent, The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, has become a law. The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill on July 30, while the Rajya Sabha had cleared it a day earlier.
The legislation grants Vande Mataram the same status as the national anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’. For the first time at the Independence Day function, Vande Mataram will be sung from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the Union Home Ministry said.
Earlier, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act prohibited intentionally preventing the singing of the national anthem (Jana Gana Mana) or causing disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing.
These offences were punishable with up to three years of imprisonment, a fine or both, while a second and every subsequent conviction attracted a minimum of one year’s imprisonment.
The erstwhile law did not accord the same protection for the national song.
