SC declines urgent hearing on BJP's plea on Rath Yatra in West Bengal

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to accord urgent hearing on the BJP's plea challenging a Calcutta High Court order not allowing its Rath Yatra in West Bengal, PTI reported.

Amit Shah. Photo: PTI (File)

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to accord urgent hearing on the BJP's plea challenging a Calcutta High Court order not allowing its Rath Yatra in West Bengal, PTI reported. The lawyer associated with the plea said they have been informed by the apex court registry that the matter would be listed in the normal course. The top court is closed for winter vacations. The party, which sought an urgent hearing on the petition, had planned to launch the yatra from three districts of the state. The BJP's plans to take out the "save democracy rallies" hit a roadblock when the High Court's division bench on December 21 quashed the single bench's order that had given go-ahead to the programme saying the party should not create any trouble during their movement as they would be held liable. The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Debasish Kar Gupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar sent the case back to the single bench with a directive that the latter consider the intelligence inputs provided by the state agencies. The Mamata Banerjee government had moved an appeal before the Division Bench against the Single Bench's December 20 order and seeking urgent hearing. While setting aside Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty's Single Bench's order, the Division Bench directed it to study afresh the 36 intelligence inputs from 31 police stations and five police commissionerates submitted by the state government before it. The Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government had rejected BJP's plea to hold the 'Rath Yatra', arguing there was "grave apprehension of major breach of peace and communal violence during and in the aftermath" of the programme. The BJP was originally scheduled to hold three "Rath Yatra" rallies from north Bengal's Cooch Behar, South 24 Parganas district's Gangasagar and Birbhum district's temple town of Tarapith, to be flagged off by party President Amit Shah on December 7, 9 and 14 respectively. These rallies were meant to touch all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state before converging in Kolkata in January. This was for the first time that the BJP had undertaken a political campaign of such a huge magnitude, covering nearly 10,000 kms, in the state. The BJP then moved the Calcutta High Court on December 17 after the Bengal government's decision and proposed December 22, 24 and 26 as fresh dates for the three rallies. (With inputs from agencies)