India
Earlier, the court had came hard on the Mamata Banerjee government that cited 'intelligence report' to ban the yatra. The larger bench not only turned down the order of single-judge bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty but also questioned the authenticity of the intel report calling the threats cited by TMC-led government as 'imaginary'. But then, the court reversed its decision once again!
Kolkata/New Delhi: The fight for rath yatra has now reached the Supreme Court, with the BJP knocking its doors on Monday. The ruling party has filed an appeal in the apex court and sought an urgent hearing against the Calcutta high court division bench order that had denied permission to hold its much anticipated three rath yatras across the state last week.
The division bench of the high court had quashed the earlier single-bench order that had allowed the rath yatra. Interestingly, moments after delivering the verdict, the chief justice of the high court retired.
Even earlier, the court had come hard on the Mamata Banerjee government that cited 'intelligence report' to ban the yatra. The larger bench not only turned down the order of single-judge bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty that had disallowed BJP from taking out the rath yatra but also questioned the authenticity of the intel report calling the threats cited by TMC-led government as 'imaginary'. But then, the court reversed its decision once again!
The BJP was scheduled to kick-start its rath yatras from December 7 in presence of BJP president Amit Shah. But on December 6, a single-judge bench of the Calcutta high court had refused them the permission.
Both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) have taken the issue for a matter of prestige and what's being fought in the court of law has less to do with legality and more to do with inflated egos of both sides guided by shroode political calculation.
There are supposed to be three rath yatras in all, cutting across all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies of Bengal. Each of them is scheduled to culminate in a massive rally, all of which will be addressed by BJP president Amit Shah. The Bengal unit of the BJP also is planning to hold a penultimate rally in Kolkata as the grand finale. It expects Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address that rally.
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