Dishonouring the tricolour could send you to jail

PANAJI: The government, in an official statement, has stated that anyone found disrespecting the national flag would be imprisoned for a term that may extend to three years. It has called for strict compliance of the provisions under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, and the Flag Code of India, 2002.

As such, anyone who is found publicly burning, defacing, disfiguring, destroying or disrespecting the national flag or the Constitution of India through spoken/written words or by acts, is liable to be punished with imprisonment, a fine, or both.



Disrespect includes embroidering the national flag on cushions and dress materials, dipping it in salute to any person or thing, flying it at half-mast in absence of government instructions, or using it as drapery (except in state funerals).

Similarly, anyone who intentionally prevents the singing of the national anthem or disturbs an assembly singing the anthem, shall be punished with imprisonment that may extend to three years, a fine, or both.

Also, whoever commits a second or subsequent offence of the same nature shall be imprisoned for not less than a year for each such offence.