Calcutta HC grants Bengal LoP to conduct Hanuman Jayanti rally on April 12

Kolkata, April 10 (IANS) A single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Thursday, has given permission to the leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari to conduct a rally in Kolkata on April 12 on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti.

However, the single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh has set a number of conditions for conducting the rally scheduled at a route in North Kolkata and is supposed to end at a temple of Lord Hanuman.

As per the direction of the single-judge bench the time allotted for the rally is between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on April 12. The maximum number of participants at the rally should not be more than 250 and the participants will have to strictly abide by the sound- pollution rules, Use of DJs has also been barred at the rally.

The leader of the opposition approached Justice Ghosh’s bench after the Kolkata Police denied the permission to conduct the rally on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti. The matter came up for hearing on Thursday and at the end of the hearing Justice Ghosh gave the conditional permission to conduct the rally.

The state BJP leaders have claimed that whenever the question is on a procession on the occasion of any Hindu religious festival, the police either deny or remain silent on permission.

They also recalled how two Ram Navami processions in Kolkata- adjacent Howrah district were conducted on April 6 following the permission of the Calcutta High Court.

“Be it any programme on a Hindu religious festival or any public political programme by opposition parties, the only way left is to approach the Calcutta High Court for permission after police deny the same each time,” said a state committee member of BJP.

--IANS

src/pgh