Calcutta High Court on Thursday refused permission to the BJP for holding a 'Rath Yatra' in Coochbehar, which was to be flagged off by the party president Amit Shah on Friday, after the West Bengal government refused to allow the event saying it may cause communal tension.
The BJP decided to put on hold Shah's proposed rally and the Rath Yatra, saying it will wait for the final order from the high court, which will now hear an appeal by the saffron party on Friday morning.
Single bench judge Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty directed that the rally stands deferred till the next date of hearing on January 9 and observed that the prayer of BJP for permission for it cannot be granted at this stage.
Appearing for the state, Advocate General Kishore Dutta told the court that the rally will create communal disharmony and submitted to the judge a report in a sealed cover, which he said delineates apprehensions of disturbance to peace and communal disharmony by intelligence agencies.
The court directed superintendents of police of all districts in West Bengal to file a report before the court on holding of Rath Yatras, peremptorily by December 21, after hearing all the district presidents of BJP.
Immediately after the order was passed, lawyers for the BJP went to the chamber of Chief Justice Debasish Kargupta and prayed for constitution of a special bench for hearing its appeal on Thursday evening as the normal court hours had ended for the day, party lawyer Phiroze Edulji said.
The Chief Justice refused to constitute a special bench and asked the BJP lawyers to move the appeal before the court on Friday morning at 10.30 am, he said.
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The saffron party had scheduled three Rath Yatras in West Bengal which are to pass through all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
In New Delhi, the BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of running a "dictatorship" in the state and alleged her government refused the permission as she was busy playing "politics of appeasement".
The BJP campaign, which the party has named 'Save Democracy Rally' and has projected it as a "game-changer" in Bengal politics, was scheduled to begin from Coochbehar district in the north on December 7, from Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district on December 9, and from Tarapith temple in Birbhum district on December 14.
The BJP told the court the rallies will converge and culminate in Kolkata by January 16.
Noting that the rallies will take place for over a month covering all districts, the court asked, "Can the mere undertaking of an advocate that the rallies will be peaceful be enough to allow? "If something happens, who will be responsible?"
To this Justice Chakraborty asked the BJP counsel, "If a common man dies today, will your district president be responsible?"
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