The Calcutta High Court’s division bench has refused to allow the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to operate a bookstall in front of its party office in Bongaon, while directing that roadside stalls without permission be removed.
The order followed the West Bengal government’s challenge to an earlier ruling by Justice Saugata Bhattacharya’s single bench. During Friday’s hearing, Chief Justice Ravindra V Ghughe questioned whether the organisers had applied for and received permission from the relevant authorities to set up the stall.
“If you have not received permission after applying for it, what will the police do?” the Chief Justice asked, according to Sangbad Pratidin’s report of the hearing. The court also questioned the legal basis for operating a bookstall without approval, with the Advocate General arguing that a stall could not be permitted without authorisation.
CPI(M) counsel Shamim Ahmed told the court that emails had been sent seeking permission from the Public Works Department and the highways authority. The petitioner’s side also said that the police had been informed about the application. The court, however, did not accept the request to allow the stall temporarily during the Durga Puja period.
The party’s lawyers initially sought permission to operate the bookstall for the remaining three or four days of the festival without using a microphone or loudspeaker. They later proposed placing a five-foot table and an umbrella in front of the party office, without constructing a permanent canopy.
The bench rejected that proposal as well. Chief Justice Ghughe asked whether the bookstall stood in the same line as other roadside stalls or whether it extended onto the road. After the lawyer said it was positioned in line with other stalls, the court observed that equality before the law required the same standard to apply to all roadside structures.
“Remove all roadside stalls. If there is no permission, nobody needs a stall,” the Chief Justice said during the hearing, as reported by Sangbad Pratidin. The Advocate General responded that it was not known whether the other stalls had the necessary permissions either, placing the issue within a broader enforcement question rather than limiting it to the CPI(M) stall.
The proceedings also referred to the location’s proximity to the Bangladesh border. The Advocate General said the officer-in-charge of Bongaon police station was present in court and that the proposed bookstall was around six kilometres from the border. The court consequently directed that neither a table nor an umbrella could be used to operate the stall.
The case is scheduled to be heard next on January 21. The court has also indicated that notices will be issued to all parties connected with the matter. The next hearing is expected to determine the further course of the dispute over the stall and the treatment of other roadside structures in the area.
