No BJP rath yatra says SC, party can conduct meetings and rallies

New Delhi, Jan 15: The Supreme Court has refused to give the go ahead for the BJP's rath yatra in West Bengal. The court however said that the party could conduct meetings and rallies.

The court further said that if the BJP comes out with a revised plan, it could be considered later. The BJP had challenged the decision of the Calcutta High Court which had refused permission for the yatra.

The Calcutta High Court had reviewed its own decision, while putting the yatras on hold. A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court had said that it would review the order of the single judge, who had permitted the BJP to undertake the yatras in West Bengal.

The matter came up for hearing before a larger bench headed by Chief Justice Kargupta last week, and the case was sent back to the single-judge bench with instructions that it consider 36 intelligence inputs provided by the state administration before taking a decision on the BJP's "rath yatra" in West Bengal.

The earlier order of the single judge stands quashed.

Following the order of the single judge, the West Bengal government had approached the Calcutta High Court. It had challenged the order of the single judge which permitted the BJP to hold Rath Yatra rallies across the state as part of its 2019 Lok Sabha campaign.

The State Advocate General Kishore Dutta moved a petition opposing the single bench order before a division bench of the chief justice on Friday morning.

The state government has roped in senior counsel and veteran Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi to plead the case on behalf of the West Bengal Police.

The single judge had said that any threat to public order must be real and not imaginary or likely possibility. "Without providing for reasonable restrictions, the authorities have passed an order for total exclusion," the judge had also said.