HC to Bengal: Lift curbs on Puja idol immersion

The West Bengal government had banned the immersion of idols beyond 10 pm on September 30, the last day of the festival, and October 1 to avoid an overlap with Moharram processions.

In a setback to the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court Thursday allowed the immersion of Durga idols without any restrictions until midnight on all days from Vijayadashami on September 30, including Moharram the next day. The court also ordered police to specify separate routes for the immersion of Durga idols and tazias and “ensure that such routes do not overlap each other”.

The state government had banned the immersion of idols beyond 10 pm on September 30, the last day of the festival, and October 1 to avoid an overlap with Moharram processions. However, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Rakesh Tiwari and Justice Harish Tandon stated that no case has been made out “for coming to the conclusion that there is or there was possibility of any untoward incident or that any such incident was there in the past”.

Following the court’s order, government sources said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with state officials and asked them to make the necessary arrangements. ANI quoted Banerjee as saying, “Someone can slit my throat, but no one can tell me what to do. I will do what I can to keep peace.”

Referring to the government’s order, the High Court bench stated that “this court does not find any reasonable basis or foundation for issuance of the aforesaid orders abridging and/ or curtailing the right to profess religion and performance of rituals”.

Hearing three pleas challenging the restrictions, the bench said, “The police administration is directed to provide adequate personnel inside the state to meet any exigencies at the spot and shall handle with care and caution and circumspection to get harmony between the two religious communities.”

“You are exercising extreme power without basis… Just because you are the state, can you pass an arbitrary order… You have to go step by step. Here what you have done is that you have taken the last resort first,” the bench said on the government’s restrictions.

The bench also directed the state government to issue advertisements providing information about the routes and ensure communal harmony.

The court asked authorities to file an affidavit on the pleas within three weeks after the Puja holidays and the petitioners to submit their reply within another two weeks. The next hearing is scheduled to be held five weeks after the Puja vacation.

Priyanka Tibrewal, advocate for the petitioners, said, “The court ruled that the routes of immersion and Moharram processions have to be separately demarcated. The separate routes have to be widely publicised.”

On Wednesday, the court had said that the state cannot hinder a citizen’s right to practice religion on the basis of a mere assumption of law-and-order disruption. “Let them (Hindus and Muslims) live in harmony, do not create a line between them,” the court said. Later, Banerjee accused the Centre of hatching a “conspiracy” against her government. “I do not appease anyone. The Centre has hatched a conspiracy against us. It takes only a second to ignite a fire but a lot of effort to douse it. The allegations of appeasement against me are deeply insulting and disrespectful. Today, I am saying this with a heavy heart,” she said.

Welcoming Thursday’s order, the state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “The court has vindicated our stand. The Chief Minister created trouble unnecessarily by imposing such restrictions and has been playing divisive politics.”

(With PTI)