Calcutta High Court on Friday directed city police to allow the BJP to hold a rally that is likely to be addressed by Union home minister Amit Shah near Victoria House in Esplanade on November 29.
The order came at the end of a legal tangle between the state government and the BJP over holding a rally at the spot where the Trinamul Congress has been organising its Sahid Divas for several years to pay tribute to Youth Congress workers who had died in a police firing on July 21, 1993.
Jyoti Basu was the chief minister when the incident took place.
After a division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya gave its go-ahead to the rally, sources said the government was planning to move the Supreme Court against the order. Anticipating the government's move, the BJP has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court.
The government had moved the division bench to challenge Justice Rajashekhar Mantha's verbal order allowing the BJP to hold its November 29 rally in front of Victoria House. The BJP moved the single-judge bench as there was no response from the Calcutta police to the party's plea to permit the rally near Victoria House.
Although the government wanted the court to hear the plea on November 28, the division bench took up the matter for hearing on Friday following an appeal on Thursday by the counsel for BJP Billwadal Bhattacharya.
Moving the appeal, lawyer Kishore Datta, who appeared for the government, told the division bench that other than the Sahid Divas rally, Trinamul didn't hold any programme at the spot of the police firing.
He said rallies at Esplanade would disrupt traffic at the busy thoroughfare.
While delivering the order on Friday, the division bench said: "Since the traffic system and movement of pedestrians are generally disrupted due to holding of such gatherings on a busy thoroughfare, police can impose practical guidelines during issuing the permission."
"The police have to keep in mind that the law and order system of the city is not disturbed on the day," the Chief Justice said.
The order clarified that restrictions that were mentioned on Calcutta police website could only be imposed.
"Police will not have the liberty to impose any other restrictions," the bench clarified.
The BJP has welcomed the order.
"It was an expected order from Calcutta High Court. Trinamul was desperate to stop the rally by Amit Shah ji and the court had understood the motive. The order proved that the Trinamul Congress is the most intolerant political party in the country," said BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.
Speaking to ABP Ananda, Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said: "Who are the advisors at the top level? They are making every non-issue a political issue. As a soldier of the party, I think Trinamul has the right to organise the July 21 rally there (Esplanade). But as a common person, I also wonder why other political parties would not hold rallies at that point."
