Tuesday, Apr 30, 2024 | Last Update : 08:28 AM IST
Rath yatra: BJP fails to get urgent SC hearing
The plea alleged that the state government was denying citizens permission to organise events due to which different petitions were filed in courts.
New Delhi: In a setback that may bring the BJP’s political juggernaut to a temporary halt, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to accord an urgent hearing on the saffron party’s plea against the Calcutta high court order not allowing its rath yatra in West Bengal.
The decision not to give urgent hearing was taken by officials of the apex court registry, the BJP’s lawyer said, adding that the petition will be heard in the normal course as the court is on vacation from December 16 to 31.
In the plea filed through advocate E.C. Agrawala, the BJP’s West Bengal unit sought an ex-parte stay on the December 21 order of the high court which set aside the order of a single judge allowing the yatra. The plea contended that the party’s fundamental right to hold a peaceful yatra cannot be withheld on the ground of mere surmises and conjectures as was being done by the state authorities repeatedly.
The plea alleged that the state government was denying citizens permission to organise events due to which different petitions were filed in courts. It claimed that earlier also permission was denied several times at the last moment to “harass the BJP” which later moved the high court and that the party has been facing such political vendetta since 2014 in West Bengal.
The BJP’s West Bengal unit had sought permission to hold the “Save Democracy Rally,” which would cover all 42 parliamentary constituencies in the state ahead of the 2019 general elections. The party had planned to launch the yatra from three districts of the state. The rallies, according to the original schedule, were supposed to be flagged off by BJP president Amit Shah from Bengal’s Cooch Behar district on Decemeber 7, Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas on December 9 and from Tarapith temple in Birbhum on December 14.
