Calcutta High Court Accepts BJP's Appeal Against Order Banning Party's 'Rath Yatra' in Bengal Till Jan 9
The bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty had on Thursday observed that the court would need reports from SPs of all districts, before taking a decision on whether the BJP should be allowed to take out the rally.
Kolkata, December 7: The division bench of Calcutta High Court on Friday accepted the plea moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) challenging the single bench's order which barred the party from taking out "rath yatras" in West Bengal. The petition was accepted at 10:30am by the court, said BJP vice-president Joy Prakash Majumdar.
On Thursday, the court upheld the concerns cited by the West Bengal government while denying permission for the BJP's rath yatra. The matter reached the courtroom after the saffron party object to the permission for rath yatra denied to them by Cooch Behar's Superintendent of Police.
The bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty had observed that the court would need reports from SPs of all districts, before taking a decision on whether the BJP should be allowed to take out the rally.
West Bengal advocate general Kishore Dutta told the bench that the state intelligence fears communal violence if the BJP is allowed to take out the rath yatra. The same reason was cited by the Cooch Behar SP, while denying permission to the party for the yatra in the district on Friday.
The rath yatra campaign, considered to be the BJP's strongest push in the frontier state ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, was expected to begin from today. The yatra was scheduled to be flagged off by party's national president Amit Shah.
BJP's Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh is hopeful that the court will issue a favourable order today, allowing the party to kick off the scheduled yatra in Cooch Behar.
"We have full faith in the judiciary and are hopeful that justice will be delivered. We are hopeful that we would be able to take out the Rath Yatra programme from today," Ghosh said.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 07, 2018 12:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).