Union Home Amit Shah was scheduled to attend a massive rally on November 29, but the local police turned down the party’s request. As a result, the BJP’s West Bengal chapter filed an appeal with the Calcutta High Court on Monday. The purpose of the rally is to draw attention to purported inconsistencies in the state government’s execution of the MGNREGA-sponsored, centrally-sponsored 100-day work plan.
The petition has been accepted by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha’s bench, and the case will be heard later today. The auto-generated emails that were sent to the petitioner, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, the general secretary of the BJP, stating that he had not applied for permission in a timely manner, were a significant observation made by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha. The applications were submitted well within the two-week window allotted for the granting of such licences, the Court concluded.
“The authorities are blatantly lacking in mental application. Additionally, it seems that the government has predetermined computer-generated denials to all of the petitioners’ requests. The judge declared, “This is not admissible under the law. According to what was told to the court, Chattopadhyay had first requested permission on October 18, proposing to hold a rally on November 28. But the following day, he got an automatically created email that denied the request.
He then submitted an application to the Joint Commissioner of Police once more to organise a rally on November 29. The same email was sent out again, refusing authorization. The Court granted Chattopadhyay’s request to hold the event after considering opposing comments; it will now happen on November 29 at the same location as the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), which typically holds its yearly rally on July 21.
“This Court cannot understand why the authorities are providing a mechanically generated reply in this format even though the applications were submitted two weeks prior to the rally’s scheduled date. The state official in attendance at the court attested to the necessity of providing the required two weeks’ notice,” the court said.
The state authorities were also directed by the Court to provide clarification by November 22 regarding their intention to impose any reasonable limits on the event. The Chattopadhyay was represented by advocates Soumya Majumder, Billwadal Bhattacharyya, M Rajdeep Majumder, Srijib Chakraborty, Loknath Chatterjee, Tarunjyoti Tewari, Moyukh Mukherjee, Anish Kumar Mukherjee, Suryaneel Das, Subhajit Dhibar, and Chiranjit Pal. The state government was represented by Advocate Lal Mohan Basu and Additional Government Leader Amal Kumar Sen.
