The Calcutta High Court on Friday put a stay on Mamata Banerjee Government’s decision to distribute funds to Durga Puja committees.
While hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by advocate Saurabh Dutta challenging the Government’s decision, the court of Acting Chief Justice Debashis Kar Gupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar wondered whether there was any specific guideline based on which the Government was granting special funds to the Durga Puja committees.
As Advocate General Kishor Dutta failed to provide any satisfactory reply, the HC directed the Government to put on hold the grant till next Tuesday. There was huge amount of money involved in the decision and the court needed to know about the guideline based on which such huge amount of money was dispersed by the Government, the court reportedly said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on September 10 had announced a grant of Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 clubs organising Durga Puja.
Out of these clubs 3,000 are from Kolkata and the rest from the districts.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Bikash Ranjan Chakrabarty said the decision of the Government was unconstitutional and needed to be stopped.
Earlier, Taha Siddiqi, the head of Furfura Sharief, one of the largest Muslim congregations in the State, had also raised similar questions wondering about the need to provide such grants by a secular Government for religious purposes. He said, “The Government should provide funds for all religious communities if it does provide doles to any one community.”
The Chief Minister, however, defended her stance and said the grants had already been cleared to the clubs and that she did not know how they could be refunded. “It has already been disbursed. I don’t know how it can be refunded,” she said.