Kolkata, Sep 17 (IANS): A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to hold a public meeting at Sreerampore Court Maidan in Hooghly district with a maximum participation of 1,000 party workers on September 26.
The single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya also fixed the time limit of the public meeting between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Justice Bhattacharya also said that there should be no rally or procession after the public meeting and nothing could be done by the organisers that would disrupt the smooth traffic movement at the nearby busy Grand Trunk Road.
Although the Mamata Banerjee-led faction in Trinamool Congress wanted to hold the meeting at Sreerampore with the participation of 2,000 party activists, the state government objected to that.
The state government’s argument was that the Sreerampore Court Maidan area was quite narrow and since the former Chief Minister is entitled to Z-plus category security, some space had to be left open in front for security reasons.
If 2000 people gathered outside that remaining area, there was a possibility of trampling, the state government counsel argued.
However, the Trinamool Congress counsel and the four-time party Lok Sabha member, Kalyan Banerjee, countered by saying that the state’s argument was not correct, since recently 50,000 people gathered at the same place during a programme by singer Shreya Ghosal.
After hearing the arguments of both sides, Justice Bhattacharya ruled that a maximum of 1,000 people could assemble at the public meeting.
Earlier, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction in Trinamool Congress wanted to conduct a public meeting followed by a rally at Sreerampore on September 11.
However, due to complications surrounding police permission, the matter reached the Calcutta High Court. Then the same single-judge bench of Justice Bhattacharya allowed Mamata to hold a meeting at the Snanpiri Maidan at Mahesh in Sreerampore.
However, the board of trustees of the adjacent Jagannath temple went to a division bench of the Calcutta High Court and challenged the single-judge bench order. They said that the Snanpiri Maidan was private property, and it had been decided that no political programmes would be allowed there.
Thereafter, the division bench referred the matter back to the same single-judge bench of Justice Bhattacharya. Finally, on Thursday, Justice Bhattacharya’s bench gave conditional permission for the public meeting at a different location of Sreerampore Court Maidan.
