{"id":21693,"date":"2016-10-09T17:59:58","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T12:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=21690&preview_id=21690"},"modified":"2016-10-09T17:59:58","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T12:29:58","slug":"calcutta-hc-lifts-puja-curbs-slams-bengal-bid-to-appease-minorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=21693","title":{"rendered":"Calcutta HC lifts Puja curbs, slams Bengal \u2018bid to appease minorities\u2019 | The Indian Express"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bijoy Dashami, the day of the Durga idol immersion, falls on October 11 this year. The tazia procession for Muharram is to take place the next day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Calcutta High Court has held the time limits set by the West Bengal government for Durga idol immersion next week, on account of Moharram, as \u201carbitrary\u201d and said the order was a \u201cclear endeavour\u201d by the state to \u201cappease the minority section of the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

While noting that \u201cwe live in difficult times\u201d and it would be \u201cdangerous to mix politics with religion\u201d, the order of October 6 by a single-member bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta said no decision should be taken that could pit \u201cone community against another\u201d, and that \u201cintolerance would rise in the event of such arbitrary decision\u201d of the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a clear endeavour on the part of the state government to pamper and appease the minority section of the public at the cost of the majority section without there being any plausible justification. The reason therefore is, however, not far to seek,\u201d the court added.<\/p>\n

Bijoy Dashami, the day of the Durga idol immersion, falls on October 11 this year. The tazia procession for Muharram is to take place the next day.<\/p>\n

Directing the police and civil administration to work together to identify routes for the immersion processions and for the tazia to be taken out by the Muslim community, taking care to \u201censure that the routes do not overlap\u201d, Justice Dutta said that \u201cno effort\u201d had been made to \u201csatisfy\u201d the Bench that \u201cprocessions (tazia) on the eve of Moharram are an inseparable part of the mourning\u201d associated with Moharram.<\/p>\n

Noting that \u201cthere has never been a holiday\u201d declared by the state or Centre on the eve of Muharram to \u201cfacilitate processions (tazia)\u201d, the court said, \u201cThe administration has failed to take note of the fact that Moharram is also not the most important festival of people having faith in Islam\u2026 To put it curtly, the state government has been irresponsibly brazen in its conduct of being partial to one community, thereby infringing upon the fundamental rights of people worshipping Maa Durga.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge added, \u201cNever has there been a restriction on immersion of Durga idols on Bijoya Dashami at any earlier point of time. It has been brought to the notice of this Bench that in the years 1982 and 1983, Moharram was observed on the day following Bijoya Dashami, but no restriction of the nature impugned herein was imposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The order further said that Bijoy Dashami is a ritual for \u201cpuritan Hindus\u201d, that can\u2019t be \u201cpostponed to a day\u201d beyond Bijoy Dashami, or \u201cpreponed at the whims\u201d of the state government.<\/p>\n

Justice Dutta felt that apart from the fact that the restrictions on idol immersion were \u201cunprecedented\u201d in Bengal\u2019s history, there is \u201cno decision in black and white taken either by the civil administration or by the police administration indicating any reason for imposing the impugned restriction\u201d.<\/p>\n

The state government\u2019s time restrictions pertained to Durga Pujas held in households and those organised by apartment complexes or societies. The directive, issued sometime in early August, said nobody could immerse the idols after 4 pm on Bijoya Dashami.<\/p>\n

In his order, Justice Dutta allowed the three petitioners, representing two households and an apartment complex, to immerse their idols by 8.30 pm on Bijoya Dashami, and said the government\u2019s order would apply to other households or apartment complexes as well.<\/p>\n

The bigger puja pandals have already declared they would immerse their idols after Moharram.<\/p>\n

Justice Dutta commented on this too, saying that community puja organisers who \u201cindulge\u201d in performing puja to \u201ccompete with one another\u201d with the \u201cpurpose of winning prizes\u201d offered by the state government could \u201cafford\u201d to retain Durga idols \u201cbeyond Bijoy Dashami\u201d.<\/p>\n

Advocate Lokenath Chatterjee, who represented the petitioners before Justice Dutta, said, \u201cAs of now there are no restrictions on household pujas and apartment pujas. That is one reading in the case. The state government should have ideally appealed, but they haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Calcutta HC lifts Puja curbs, slams Bengal \u2018bid to appease minorities\u2019 | The Indian Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Calcutta HC lifts Puja curbs, slams Bengal \u2018bid to appease minorities\u2019 | The Indian Express<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bijoy Dashami, the day of the Durga idol immersion, falls on October 11 this year. The tazia procession for Muharram is to take place the next day. The Calcutta High Court has held the time limits set by the West Bengal government for Durga idol immersion next week, on account of Moharram, as \u201carbitrary\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}