The Supreme Court(SC) on 14^th February clarified that one need not or no one can be obligated to stand up in attention position if the national anthem is played in a movie or a documentary.

“When national anthem is played during film or documentary nobody is obligated to stand. On my question the Attorney General himself said the interim order does not deal with such a situation”, Justice Dipak Misra said during the hearing of the PIL on the matter.

When senior advocate Chander Uday Singh and advocate P V Dinesh who presented for the Kodungallur Film Society, one of the intervener who sought recall of the compulsory ‘stand up’ order raised the issue vigilante groups indulging in attacks on those not respecting the national anthem and incidents of moral policing, the bench said “no there cannot be moral policing etc.”

There have been instances of people beaten up for not standing up for the anthem and complaints have been lodged in various states across the country. October 2016, award-winning writer Salil Chaturvedi – who suffers from spinal injury – was allegedly beaten up at a Panaji multiplex for not standing up while the national anthem was being played.

Attorney General (AG)Mukul Rohatgi submitted before the court that the home ministry on the directions of the court has issued guidelines on how people with disabilities can show respect when the national anthem is being played in movie halls or public functions, saying they should not move and position themselves.