By IANS
Chennai : The Madras High Court Friday dismissed a public interest petition (PIL) against music director A.R. Rahman and mobile company Airtel that accused them of “dishonouring and commercialising” the national anthem in a video.
The bench of Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice P. Jyothimani said: “There was nothing (in the video film) to prove that Rahman and Sunil Mittal (chairman of Airtel) showed disrespect or violated rules regarding the national anthem.”
J. Mohan Raj, a leader of the local political outfit Jabamani Janata Party had alleged that the video of the national anthem featuring various leading media personalities showed a “truncated and distorted” version of the national anthem. The music of the video was composed by Rahman while it was sponsored by Airtel.
By releasing the anthem in several television channels in bits lasting between 10 seconds and seven minutes, Mittal and Rahman insulted national sentiments, as the duration ought to have been limited to 52 seconds only, the petitioner had argued.