Orissa High Court Issues Directions To Prevent Misuse Of National Emblem; Orders Constitution Of State-Level Task Force for ss

The High Court was considering a PIL raising the issue of the misuse of the State Emblem of India.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak held, “We have noticed that because of the lack of proper awareness, the misuse of the State Emblem of India appears to be a reality. The awareness must be generated across the people of the country, including the State of Odisha and the sense of responsible use of the Emblem must be ubiquitously ensured.”

“The State shall create a State Level Task Force, which would comprise of a high-ranking Officer of the Home Department to act as the Chairman thereof with one Member from Police, Transport, Education, I & PR, Law, Urban and Panchayati Raj to monitor and review any suggestion, objection and/or reporting of the misuse of the State Emblem of India on a monthly basis”, it ordered.

Advocate K. Dutta represented the Petitioner, while Deputy Solicitor General of India P.K. Parhi represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

The petitioner highlighted the improper depiction of the Emblem in various public buildings, including the precincts of the Courts. The PIL also raised concerns regarding the improper use of the Emblem in public places, like Indira Gandhi Park, Bhubaneswar, where the motto, "Satyameva Jayate", is conspicuously absent. The petitioner further flagged a significant mistake having committed in the 1st Prize of 2024 TABLEAUX on January 26, 2024, where the State of Odisha won the first Prize during the 75th Republic Day Parade, as the motto, "Satyameva Jayate" was not written below the profile of a lion capital and four numbers of Ashoka Chakras were not encrypted under each lion in between elephant and horse.

Upon noticing such mistakes, the petitioner, being a publicspirited person, filed the instant Public Interest Litigation seeking the reliefs in the form of mandamus, so that immediate steps may be taken against such misuse of the State Emblem of India and also to create a mass awareness program amongst the common citizens of India percolating the importance in legal, social and cultural values of the said State Emblem.

Reasoning

The Bench noted that despite the preventive and/or prohibitory legislation being in place, the misuse appears to continue, not with any malice or ill motive but by mistake, because of the lack of proper awareness having inculcated into the users of the said State Emblem. “This phenomenon is not restricted to the State of Odisha but in other States across the country and the Courts of the country has frowned upon such improper use of the Emblem…”, it added.

The Bench referred to the judgment of the Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court in Re: High Court Legal Services Committee (2025), where a writ of mandamus was issued upon various authorities, and the preventive measures were also enumerated in order to ensure that the misuse of the National Emblem and National Symbols in various forms does not occur.

The Bench further mentioned, “Such directions are exhaustive but apart from the same, we feel certain directions would put an impetus to a due and meaningful implementation of the provisions of the said Act. In order to eradicate any confusion and/or discrepancy in understanding the directions issued in the instant PIL, we hasten to add that the directions by the High Court of Karnataka will be treated as an integral part of the directions passed by us in the instant Public Interest Litigation.”

The Bench thus passed the following directions:

• The State shall create a State Level Task Force to monitor and review any suggestion, objection and/or reporting of the misuse of the State Emblem of India on a monthly basis.
• The State shall make a Standard Operating Procedure for functioning of the said State Level Task Force and would also review the reports of the said Task Force to be submitted on a monthly basis.
• The convergence and the synergy to be created in the different Departments of the Government, which would include the local bodies and the civic bodies for due implementation of the provisions of the said Act ensuring not only timely intervention but may prevent any such misuse.
• All the institutions using the State Emblem must be communicated in case of any mistake in depicting the State Emblem to remedy and rectify such mistakes within six weeks from the date of such communication.

“Let this judgment be circulated amongst the different Departments of the Government as well as the High Court for taking remedial measures as suggested herein above”, it ordered.

Cause Title: Alone Trust v. Union of India and others (Case No.: W.P.(C) No.33077 of 2024)

Appearance

Petitioner: Advocate P.K. Dutta

Respondent: Deputy Solicitor General of India P.K. Parhi, Central Government Counsel J.B. Mohanty, Addl. Govt. Advocate Debashis Tripathy, Senior Advocates (Amicus Curiae) Manoj Kumar Mishra, Subir Palit

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