SC rejects plea against emblem cast atop new Parliament building

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 9,500kg bronze structure in July as Opposition leaders said the 6.5 metre-high emblem showed lions with bared fangs, unlike the Lion Capital in Sarnath

The look of the national emblem cast atop the new Parliament building does not violate the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, the Supreme Court said on Friday, dismissing a plea that said it was unlike the Lion Capital in Sarnath.

Opposition leaders said the 6.5 metre-high structure was unlike the Lion Capital in Sarnath. (ANI)

“It all depends on how you look at it,” said a bench of justices MR Shah and Krishna Murari. “It cannot be said that the State Emblem of India installed in the Central Vista project is in violation of the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005.”

Lawyers Aldanish Rein and Ramesh Kumar Mishra moved the court saying the lions were designed to be “ferocious and aggressive” and the motto Satyameva Jayate was missing from the emblem.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 9,500kg bronze structure in July. Opposition leaders said the 6.5 metre-high structure showed lions with bared fangs, unlike the Lion Capital in Sarnath, which comprises four Asiatic lions standing back to back and was adopted as India’s official emblem in 1950.

The Congress called the “deviation” in the design an “insult” to the emblem. Sunil Deore and Romiel Moses, who designed the emblem, maintained there is “no deviation” in design and that there may be very minor differences.

The bench said it all depends on the mind of the person who is seeing it. “Will the Court now decide which design? Tell us which law is violated. File some better matter...,” the bench observed.

The plea pointed to the “visible difference” in the design of the lions at Sarnath and the emblem. “The lions of the newly installed emblem appear to be ferocious and aggressive with their mouth open and canine visible, while the lions of the state emblem preserved in the Sarnath museum are calm and composed.”

The plea said the emblem violated the description and design under the 2005 Act and sought direction to rectify the change in design. “The State Emblem of India is not just a graphic design but also has entrenched cultural and philosophical significance which ought not to have been altered unmindfully and illegally.”