Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was preparing to start its rath-yatra on Saturday from Birbhum’s Tarapith, it got stuck yet again in a legal hurdle.
After a single bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the go-ahead for rath-yatra after placing certain conditions, the West Bengal government moved the division bench. An “immediate hearing” was sought because it was an “urgent matter”.
The division bench of Chief Justice Debashis Kargupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar sent the matter to the single bench again stating that the matter be reviewed again.
The case has been sent to the single-judge bench with instructions that the 36 intelligence reports provided by the state government be studied well before taking a decision.
The Bengal government has repeatedly refused to grant permission to the rath-yatra organised by the BJP on grounds of apprehension of “breach of peace” and “communal violence”.
The BJP’s plans were to bring out three rallies in the first week of December itself that were to cover the length and breadth of the state moving through all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies. But the hurdles have now delayed the rallies by more than two weeks. Now, it appears that with the Calcutta High Court to open after winter vacation, the hearing may happen once the court reopens.
