New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear fresh petitions challenging the law that makes it compulsory to sing all six stanzas of Vande Mataram. A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana issued notices to the Central government and other respondents after taking up petitions filed by Bhimrao Duryodhan Borkar and former IAS officer Balakrishnan Sathyabhama Mavoji. The court also tagged the new petitions with similar cases already pending before it and scheduled the next hearing for November 30, indicating that all related constitutional questions will be examined together.

The petitioners have argued that the Union government’s January 28 and July 9, 2026 orders unlawfully replaced the decades-old practice of singing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram with the complete six-stanza version. According to the petitions, the final four stanzas contain religious references and content that, they claim, is inconsistent with India’s secular constitutional framework. They contend that making the entire composition mandatory violates constitutional principles, freedom of conscience, and the secular character of the Republic, while also raising concerns over the interpretation of the national song.

The latest petitions come after the Supreme Court had earlier observed that individuals should not be penalized for refusing to sing Vande Mataram on grounds of conscience. While hearing a separate petition filed by Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna, the court referred to its landmark 1986 judgment in Bijoe Emmanuel vs State of Kerala, which protected schoolchildren who respectfully declined to sing the national anthem due to their religious beliefs. The Bench had then stated that the principles laid down in that judgment should guide the implementation of the amended law, and the Centre is now expected to respond before the matter is taken up for further hearing.