The Calcutta High Court on Thursday permitted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hold a rally on November 29 near Victoria House in central Kolkata, where the ruling Trinamool Congress held its annual ‘Martyrs’ Day’ rally.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya upheld the single bench order and dismissed the petition filed by the West Bengal government against it.
On November 23, the West Bengal government had approached the High Court against the single-judge Bench judgement.
On November 20, the Single-Judge Bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the High Court had pulled up the Kolkata Police on Monday for denying permission for the BJP rally at Kolkata twice without any apparent reason and by way of computer-generated responses.
The Bench not only allowed the BJP to conduct the rally on November 29, but also made some negative observations about the denial of police permission on this count.
It observed that in an independent country, anyone had the freedom to go anywhere. The single-judge Bench further raised questions about the justification of denial of police permission for the same.
The November 29 mega rally was supposed to be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The proposed rally of the BJP has been organised to highlight alleged irregularities by the state government in implementing the centrally-sponsored 100-day job scheme under MGNREGA.
Besides Shah, the party has also invited Union Minister of State for Rural Development Giriraj Singh and West Bengal Minister Niranjan Jyoti.
(Case title: Jagannath Chattopadhyay vs State of West Bengal)
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