The Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court today i.e., December 21, 2018, has overturned the order passed by a Single Bench a day before and asked it to take a relook at the intelligence report of all the districts of Bengal before allowing the yatra.
The verdict passed by Chief Justice Debasish Kargupta has postponed BJP’s Rath Yatra indefinitely as the court will now go on a two week’s winter recess.
“The Division Bench has issued a stay on December 20 order of the Single Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakravarty approving the Rath Yatra. The Bench has asked (the Single Bench) to examine the district intelligence reports, which it has not done, and then to decide on basis of those reports. The reports outlined the risks of running such a yatra,” said Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress’ Secretary General and a senior Minister.
A Single Bench presided by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty on December 20, 2018, allowed the BJP’s ‘Rath Yatra’ programme, setting aside the denial of permission for the yatra by a panel of three senior most officers of the state government.
Earlier on December 6, 2018, a Single Judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court had refused permission to the BJP to hold the ‘Rath Yatra’, which was scheduled to be flagged off by BJP chief Amit Shah from Cooch Beharin North Bengal on December 7, 2018. The party had then approached the Division Bench.
The Division Bench had on December 7, 2018, asked the State chief secretary, the home secretary and the director general of police to hold a meeting with three representatives of the BJP and take a decision on the ‘yatra’ by December 14, 2018.
