HC bench puts BJP Rath Yatra on hold: Kolkata
A Calcutta High Court division bench stayed the earlier order passed the single- justice bench. The earlier order allowed the proposed BJP Rath Yatra. The program was originally scheduled for this month. It will happen, if at all, only in the next year.
The bench of Chief Justice Debashish Kargupta and Justice Arindam Mukherjee said that the earlier order was passed without the examination of police and intelligence reports. The division bench held that the order was not based on material facts. It then referred the case back to the same court. It also directed it to go through all the reports while hearing BJP’s petition.
The court will be closed from December 22nd to January 1st on the occasion of Christmas. So, the yatra will be pushed beyond the first week of January. That is because the BJP will have to wait for at least 12 days before it can again move the same court.
BJP leaders said that they would let the “legal experts” decide on the next course of action. “Our legal experts will decide whether we will move the single bench or take our plea to the Supreme Court. But even the apex court, too, will remain closed for Christmas,” Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh said.
The major game-changer in the court turned out to be Abhishek Manu Singhvi. He is the counsel for the state director-general of police. He clarified that the state government’s objection was limited to only BJP’s yatra programme and not to its public gatherings. The government had allowed around 2100 BJP meetings and rallies in the last 2 years.
The larger HC bench then decided to put the BJP Rath Yatra on hold. This was possible on the behest of the state government and their insistence that violence may occur. Was this the correct decision? What do you think?
