Bengaluru, Aug. 19 -- The Madras High Court on Tuesday said the Union government's latest notification on the sequence of state songs, the National Song and National Anthem, "does not prevent the Tamil Thai Vazhthu or the State anthem, from being sung first at government functions in Tamil Nadu," before the National Song Vande and the National Anthem.

A bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan recorded the Centre's clarification that a July 9 notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs only prescribes the sequence between Vande Mataram, the National Song and the National Anthem. It requires Vande Mataram to be sung before the National Anthem when both are rendered at the same function....