The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to interfere in the West Bengal government's decision to give Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 Durga Puja committees in the state.
A division bench of the High Court, comprising Acting Chief Justice Debasish Kar Gupta and Justice Sampa Sarkar, left the matter to the state assembly, where the ruling Trinamool Congress has the full majority, saying that the legislature is the appropriate forum to decide on expenditure by the state government.
Advocate Duytiman Chatterjee and a social worker, Saurav Gupta, moved a public interest litigation last week over the government decision. The petitioners had challenged the move to disburse funds to the tune of Rs 28 crore, claiming that it was a dole to the puja committees and had no public purpose. The petitioners also claimed that providing funds to puja committees is a violation of the secular structure of the Constitution.
The court had earlier granted an interim stay on disbursal of funds, but on Wednesday the HC refused to intervene in the "administrative matter which falls in the domain of lawmakers", said an advocate of Calcutta High Court.
"An elected government is better equipped to handle such thing. The lawmakers should decide on it," said the advocate, quoting judges.
The court had, on Friday, passed an interim stay order directing the West Bengal government to put on hold the distribution of funds to Durga puja committees till Tuesday.
The refusal of the High Court to intervene in the matter cleared the path for the state government to fund Durga Puja from the public exchequer, which many believed, should not be done by a secular government.
Shortly after the PIL was filed, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said she had already processed payment to puja committees (Rs 10,000 each).
While the BJP did not oppose the decision, Muslim organisations raised objections to funding of Durga Puja by any secular government of India.
Biswapriya Roy Choudhury, state vice president of the BJP, called the decision to dole out money “appeasement”. "She tortured Hindus in the state. Now she is giving a balm with such less amount which none of the puja committees actually needed. She is doing everything as she is scared of the BJP," he added.
Unlike the past, Mamata Banerjee inaugurated several Durga Puja programmes in Kolkata. She has also extended the leaves of government employees this year. All government offices will remain closed for 12 days, starting from Saturday.
The streets of Kolkata is already in a celebratory mood with a large number of people coming out to shop even as the festival is four days away.
With the High Court refusing to interfere in a political decision, the matter will now be before the assembly. But as the state government has already paid the money, it would have to bring an ordinance till it gets ratified by the assembly.
(with PTI inputs)
