A Calcutta High Court judge on Friday asked the Publishers and Booksellers Guild to submit an affidavit by Monday stating whether it was ready to allot a stall to the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in the Calcutta Book Fair scheduled to start on January 28 at Karunamoyee in Salt Lake.
Justice Amrita Sinha’s order followed a petition by the Parishad alleging that the guild has declined to allot it a stall at the International Kolkata Book Fair this year.
The order came a week after Justice Amrita Sinha struck down a writ petition by the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a human rights body, which too, moved court against the guild’s decision disallowing an APDR stall at the fair.
Appearing for VHP, advocates Subir Sanyal and Anindya Sunder Das told the judge: “This year, the Guild, because of some inexplicable reason, has declined to allot a stall to VHP at the fair.”
The lawyer appearing for the Guild said: “The books published by the Parishad are sensitive and controversial. The books can spread disturbance. The guild does not want any such disturbances. So it has decided against allotting a stall to VHP at this year’s fair.”
Justice Sinha asked the lawyer: “Is the Guild aware that VHP possesses its publications? The guild had allotted stalls to VHP on previous occasions. What happened suddenly, that the Guild has started to feel that the publications by the VHP are so sensitive and controversial that they may create trouble?”
Later in the day, Guild president Sudhanshu Sekhar Dey told Metro: “I am aware of the petition filed by the VHP. Once we get a copy of the order, we will comment following a discussion with our lawyers.”
Ranjit Sur, general secretary, APDR, said they could not figure out why Justice Sinha was sympathetic to the VHP and was averse to the petition filed by the APDR.
“The court seems to have a double standard. Justice Sinha was not even ready to go into the merits of our case. She did not want to hear what our lawyer, Jhuma Sen, had to say. We urge Justice Sinha to review her decision on the APDR petition,” Sur said.
