High Court quashes proceedings against Narayana Murthy in national anthem case

In a major relief to Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy, the Karnataka High Court yesterday quashed the proceedings initiated against him in a lower court on a complaint over his alleged remarks on the singing of national anthem.

Hearing a petition filed by Narayana Murthy, Justice K Bhaktavatsala quashed the proceedings initiated against him under the provisions of the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act 1971 by the Second Additional City and Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court.

It may be mentioned here that lower court had registered a criminal case against Narayana Murthy and had summoned him to court on the basis of a private complaint filed by Kannada Rakshana Vakilara Vedike, a forum of advocates fighting for the implementation of Kannada in courts.

However, the High Court observed that the lower court had no jurisdiction over the matter as the remarks attributed to Narayana Murthy on the singing of national anthem had been made in Mysore and not in Bangalore.

In its complaint, the Vedike contended that the Infosys chief, during the then President A P J Abdul Kalam’s visit to the Infosys campus in Mysore near here on April 8, had told reporters that the company chose against organising live singing of the national anthem and instead played its instrumental version to avoid “embarrassment” to the foreigners in the campus. The Vedike had accused Narayana Murthy of passing insulting remarks to the national anthem.

However, Narayana Murthy’s advocate K K Venugopal argued that his client was not guilty of any offence and playing the instrumental version of the national anthem did not amount to any violation.