Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday upheld the order passed by the Single Bench which had overruled the police’s denial to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holding a rally at the junction of CR Avenue and Bentinck Street on November 29. The state government had challenged the order passed by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha on November 20, which allowed the political party to conduct the rally along with reasonable restrictions.
The petitioner had challenged an auto-generated order which rejected the political party’s plea to hold a meeting on November 29 at the mentioned location. It was rejected on grounds that the application was not made within the stipulated time frame given on the website of police.
“The court can take judicial notice of the fact that procession/meeting/rallies are a regular feature in the state of West Bengal and more particularly in Kolkata. There have been several instances which have come to the notice of the court where rallies/meetings/agitations are being held where no permission was taken. In fact recently, there was a large gathering of people agitating for a particular issue and the same paralysed the entire traffic and movement in Kolkata and the police had a tough time to control the situation,” the Division Bench of Justice TS Sivagnanam observed.
The Bench further stated: ‘Thus we are of the considerate view that the learned Single Bench was fully justified in setting aside the rejection and issuing appropriate directions. In the light of the above, we find no grounds to interfere with the order passed by the learned Single Bench dated November 20.