BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court stayed further proceedings in a Mysore court against Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy for his alleged remarks on the singing of the national anthem.

Justice Ajit J Gunjal passed the interim order on a writ petition by Murthy challenging the orders of a judicial magistrate in Mysore who had ordered police to register a criminal case against him on a private complaint by former Karnataka minister H N Nanje Gowda.

Murthy prayed for quashing the orders passed by the trial court and also the complaint. The judge also ordered emergent notice to Nanje Gowda.

According to Murthy, during the visit of then President A P J Abdul Kalam to Infosys' Mysore campus on April 8, an instrumental version of the national anthem was played on his arrival and after vote of thanks, the gathering sang it.

During the press conference thereafter, a reporter posed a query on the playing of the instrumental version and my remarks were taken out of context and reported in a section of the press, Murthy submitted.

A media release on April 10 was made to place the matter in its true perspective. According to Murthy, the respondent filed a private complaint before the Mysore court on May 8 under the National Honor Act.

The judicial magistrate of Mysore on August 22 had ordered registration of a criminal case against him. Murthy submitted that there was a complaint filed earlier by the Kannada Rakshana Vakeelara Vedike before a city court and the same was quashed by the High Court on August 14.

He contended that the complaint was liable to be quashed in the proceedings at Mysore also.

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