Vande Mataram Gets Legal Protection

New Delhi, August 11, 2026 President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday gave her assent to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, turning it into law and extending legal protection to the national song Vande Mataram. The amendment makes deliberately stopping its singing or disrupting an assembly engaged in singing it a punishable offence, bringing it under the same legal protection as the national anthem Jana Gana Mana. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on July 30, while the Rajya Sabha cleared it a day earlier. Under the earlier law, deliberately obstructing the singing of Jana Gana Mana or disturbing an assembly during its performance could lead to imprisonment of up to three years, a fine, or both. A second or subsequent conviction carried a minimum one-year jail term. However, the legislation did not previously provide similar statutory protection to Vande Mataram. The amendment now brings the national song within the scope of Section 3 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act. The Bill had stated, “Presently, there is no specific legal provision to prevent insults to the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’, which is honoured as the national song. Therefore, in order to prohibit any person from intentionally preventing the singing of the national song or causing disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing, it is proposed to amend Section 3 of the said Act to include the national song also within its ambit, so as to make such acts punishable,” The Union Home Ministry had earlier issued protocols for singing Vande Mataram, directing that all six stanzas, lasting around 3 minutes and 10 seconds, be performed first when the national song and anthem are presented together at specified official functions. The development comes ahead of Independence Day, when Vande Mataram will be sung from the Red Fort during the national ceremony for the first time. The Home Ministry order stated, “When the national song and the national anthem are sung or played, the national song will be sung or played first.” With the amendment now in force, *Vande Mataram* has gained a specific statutory safeguard, reinforcing its formal place in national ceremonies and matters related to national honour.