In a judgment that raised questions on the constitutional decorum of sponsoring religious festivals by secular Governments, the Calcutta High Court on Friday effectively segregated secular and religious works professed to be performed by various community-based Durga Puja committees often patronized by the democratically elected Governments.
In a hard-hitting order the Division Bench of Justices Sanjib Banerjee and Arijit Banerjee directed the thousands of Durga Pujas committees that recently received Government grants of Rs 50,000 each to use such funds only for “secular purposes” like procuring logistics to prevent proliferation of corona virus and strengthening police-public bonding.
The clubs were also directed to present detailed utilization reports of the fund of Rs 50,000 to the Government for audit. The purchase of logistics like masks, sanitisers, and other relevant equipment should be supported by bills of purchase the Court said.
The Court apportioned 75 per cent of the allocated fund towards the purchase of masks, sanitisers and face shields, while the remaining 25 percent was asked to be spent for strengthening public-police bonding and inclusion of more women in community policing.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced on September 24 the Rs 50,000 grant for each of the 36,946 Durga Puja committees in the state.
She said that her Government had decided to make a grant of Rs 50,000 each to the Durga Puja committees this year round as “we are in a difficult time for the pandemic situation and it has been very difficult for the community Puja committees too to organize Pujas.”
Earlier Sourab Dutta a CITU leader had moved a petition on October 9 challenging the grant and other doles such as discounts on application fees for permissions from fire brigade and power distribution companies saying such a grant was against the concept of secularism and hurt the fundamental rights provided in the Constitution.
Even as the state Advocate General Kishore Dutta said that the funds allocated by the Government were to be used for “secular purposes” like purchasing safety equipment and for public-police bonding the Court tended to ensure that the funds were indeed spent for the purposes as claimed by the Government.
The matter would be taken up for hearing before the Court after the Durga Pujas.
Meanwhile, though the Trinamool Congress refused to react to the Friday’s order, senior leader and MP Saugato Roy said that it would hurt the common people. “I do not want to make any comment on the order as such but I feel that the common people will be hurt by it.” He also would not say whether the Government would prefer an appeal in the Supreme Court. “It is for the State Government to decide whether it would appeal before the Supreme Court or not.”