The committee, which was set up on December 5, will have officers of the rank of Joint Secretary from various Ministries.

The Union Home Ministry has appointed a 12-member inter-ministerial committee to take a call on the playing of the national anthem in cinema halls and public places.

The committee, led by Additional Secretary B.R. Sharma, will recommend changes, if needed, in the existing laws. Its first meeting will be held on January 19. The panel, which was set up on December 5 last, will have officers of the rank of Joint Secretary, an official of the Home Ministry said. It would submit a report within six months.

The committee will have representations from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Defence, External Affairs, Women and Child Development, Human Resource Development, Culture, Parliamentary Affairs, Law, Minority Affairs and Information and Broadcasting, and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.

The decision follows the Supreme Court's observation in October last that people “cannot be forced to carry patriotism on their sleeves” and it could not be assumed that if a person did not stand up for the national anthem, he or she was “less patriotic.”

The committee would make recommendations on the regulations for playing/singing of the national anthem and suggest changes in the Acts and orders relating to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, the official said.