KOLKATA — The Calcutta High Court on Thursday gave permission to the BJP to hold three yatras in West Bengal, directing the administration to ensure there was no breach of law and order, ANI reported.
The West Bengal government had on Wednesday told the Calcutta High Court that intelligence reports expressing apprehensions of breach of communal harmony were the reason for it had denied of permission for the rallies.
Countering the state government’s stand, BJP counsel SK Kapoor alleged that the denial of permission was pre-determined and without any basis, adding that “in the worst days of the British period Mahatma Gandhi held the Dandi March and nobody stopped him” but “now the government here says it won’t allow a political procession”.
On 6 December, a single-judge bench of the high court had refused to give permission to the BJP to hold the yatra, which was scheduled to be flagged off by BJP national president Amit Shah from Cooch Behar in North Bengal on 7 December, following which the party had approached the division bench.
The division bench on 7 December asked the West Bengal chief secretary, the home secretary and the director general of police to hold a meeting with three representatives of the BJP and take a decision on the ‘yatra’ by December 14.
The state government after parleys with the three-member team had refused permission for the rath yatra on 15 December on the grounds that it might lead to communal tension.
(With inputs from PTI)