AMN / KOLKATA
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court today quashed a single bench order that had allowed BJP’s Rath Yatra in West Bengal. The Division Bench also asked the Single Bench to hear the case afresh to consider intelligence inputs by state agencies.
The single-judge bench of Tapabrata Chakraborty was asked to dispose the matter expeditiously after considering whether there were adequate materials to arrive at the conclusion to allow the ‘yatra’ as proposed by the BJP.
The division bench said the order needs to consider afresh the 36 intelligence inputs submitted by the state government before the single bench.
Advocate General Kishore Dutta, representing the state, said that the single bench had not considered the intelligence inputs submitted to it in a sealed cover and had returned it to him without even opening it.
The ‘Rath Yatra’, which was originally scheduled to start on December 7 but was denied permission by the state government, has become the latest political flashpoint between the BJP and the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress.
After hearing an appeal by the BJP, a single-judge bench of the high court had on Thursday allowed the mega event, to be flagged off by BJP president Amit Shah under a re-scheduled programme from December 28 to 31.