REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DHAKA -- Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Monday upheld a High Court verdict that banned the use of the national anthem as a ring tone or welcome tune in mobile phones for commercial purposes.
A three-member of the court's Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order after dismissing two separate appeals filed by two leading operators Banglalink and Grameenphone challenging the High Court ruling.
The High Court in its Aug. 5, 2010 verdict also fined Grameen Phone, Banglalink and other operators 5 million taka (65,000 U.S. dollars) each for using the anthem to make money and ordered them to pay the money to charities.
Monday's verdict commuted the amount from 5 million taka to 3 million taka.
The mobile operators have already stopped using national anthem as mobile ring tone following the High Court verdict.
Bangladesh operators, who are facing fierce competition, apparently initially introduced national anthem as a ring tone to woo new patriotic users.
As they started to charge the customers for the service, the lawyers took the matter to the court.
Bangladesh enacted a new law in July 2010 to punish one those insult the national flag or anthem.
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