Kamal Kumar Pal v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

October 7, 2024 Sl. No.24 Court No.9 s.biswas WPA 25509 of 2024 Kamal Kumar Pal vs.

The State of West Bengal and others Mr. Moyukh Mukherjee Ms. Sagarika Banerjee Ms. Sarmistha Basak ... for the petitioner Mr. Suman Sengupta Ms. Amrita Panja Moulick ... for the State

1. The petitioner seeks permission to organize a Durga Puja. The petitioner claims to be the president of Kendpara Yuba Samaj Sangha Club.

2. The written instruction of the I.C. Belpahari Police Station is taken on record. It appears from the document, the committee had been celebrating Durga Puja for the last three years.' The committee had applied for permission with all the connected papers earlier. Earlier, permission had been granted.

3. On September 19, 2024, the procedure for online puja permission was introduced by the Jhargram District Administration. Upon submission of the application, the fire brigade and the electricity department, were required to approve the same and then forward the documents to the concerned police station for further processing. Fifteen puja committees of Belpahari Police Station submitted online applications for grant of permission and they were granted permission by the Jhargram

District Administration. The petitioner did not apply through the online portal. Hence, his application could not be processed by the Block Development Officer, Binpur-II Development Block.

4. On September 26, 2024, a mail was received at the police station which indicated that the petitioner had approached the BDO, Binpur-II seeking permission for Durga Puja.

5. On October 5, 2024, the petitioner was asked to approach the police authorities with the duly filled in form of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, and obtain 'no objection' from Belpahari Police Station. The petitioner did not approach the police authorities to obtain such 'no objection' on the duly filled in form of the WBSEDCL, for necessary permission from the electricity authorities. According to the authority, the petitioner neither applied through the online portal for grant of puja permission nor did the petitioner approach the authorities even when asked to do so. This factual aspect is available from the instructions of the police authorities.

6. Under such circumstances, the writ petition is devoid of merits.

7. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of.

8. All the parties are directed to act on the basis of the server copy of the order.

(Shampa Sarkar, J.)