Suman Dutta And ORS v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

25.09.2023 Item No.14 gd/ssd WPA(P)/513/2023 SUMAN DUTTA AND ORS.

VS STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS.

Mr. Subhabrata Chowdhury, Mr. Tripti Pandey, Mr. Biswajit Goswami, Mr. Mriganka Mistri, Mr. Subhojit Dhibar ..for the Petitioners.

Sk. Md. Galib, Ms. Sujata Mukherjee ..for the State.

Mr. Mir Anuruzzaman ..for Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality.

1. By way of public interest litigation the petitioners seek for a direction upon the respondents to permit them to organize Durga Puja from 19th October, 2023 till 25th October, 2023 in a place near 45AB Bus Stand near Allahabad Bank More by constructing a pandal having an area approximately 3000 sq.ft. 2.

Firstly, the writ petition cannot be entertained as a public interest litigation since if an individual or a group of individual seeks to conduct the Puja, they have to approach the concerned authorities by way of an appropriate application so that the authorities can consider the same and if permission is granted, responsibility has to be fixed on the person in whose favour the permission is granted.

3. The learned advocate appearing for the respondent/State has produced a copy of the written instruction given by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Baruipur, South 24-Parganas stating that permission to hold Durga Puja, Baruipur within South 24Parganas District jurisdiction, the Puja Committee has to apply online through a dedicated portal and the portal is open from today i.e. 25.09.2023 and to facilitate the committees, all relevant departmental officials will be present at respective BDO offices on 26.09.2023 and 27.09.2023. Similar instruction has also been given by the Officer-in-Charge, Narendrapur Police Station, Baruipur Police District dated 25.09.2023.

4. In the light of the stand taken by the respondent authorities, no directions are required to be issued in this writ petition and it is well open to the petitioners to seek for permission by making an application in the dedicated portal.

5. With the above observation, the writ petition stands disposed of.

6. The reports are taken on record.

(T. S. SIVAGNANAM) CHIEF JUSTICE (HIRANMAY BHATTACHARYYA, J.)