A judgement of a two judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, which included Roy and Dipak Misra, made it compulsory for cinema halls across India to play the National Anthem of India before the screening of any film, and mandated that the audience stand while the National Anthem was played.
The verdict has been widely criticized for being an assault on civil liberties and individual rights in India.
[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][a] It was pointed out that the ruling contravened an earlier judgement of the Indian Supreme Court in which children in India claiming religious allegiance to Jehovah's Witnesses were permitted to refrain from singing the National Anthem during school assemblies in accordance with their religious rights.
[8][10][14][17] Following this order, Indian police has started arresting moviegoers who fail to stand when the National Anthem is played in cinema halls in India.
One person on Twitter recommended that pirated internet torrents should now come with a “national anthem file attached,” and another wrote that food vendors in cinemas should exclaim “Bharat Mata ki jai,” or “Hail Mother India,” when serving popcorn.