KOLKATA — A single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Monday, granted permission to around 40 organisations, including some doctors’ associations, to conduct rallies on Tuesday between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. as a protest against the ghastly rape and murder of a woman doctor last month.
The association chose Tuesday as the day of the protest rally since the two occasions of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday and Mahalaya Amavasya (a significant day in Hinduism for performing rituals to honour ancestors) coincide.
However, the proposed rally faced some hurdles as the Kolkata Police issued prohibitory orders over the assembly beyond a certain number of people on a major part of the rally route between Esplanade in central Kolkata and Rabindra Sadan in South Kolkata.
Thereafter, the rally organisers approached Calcutta High Court’s single judge bench of Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj for permission. As the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the counsel for the state government insisted that the rally organisers should give an approximate number of the people participating in the rally.
In this counter-argument, the counsel for the petitioner and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya said that since the subject of the rally involved larger public interest and with common people participating there it was impossible to provide the estimated number of participants in advance.
Justice Bhardwaj questioned the state government counsel on how the administration could stop ten lakh people from participating peacefully in the rally and exercising their democratic rights.
“Protest is the democratic right of people. How can the administration curb that citing traffic problems as the reason?"Justice Bhardwaj questioned.
He advised the state administration to ensure crowd control just as they do during the Durga Puja days when lakhs of people hit the streets of the city for pandal hopping. He also questioned whether any Durga Puja organiser could estimate in advance the number of visitors who would come to their pandals.