The Calcutta High Court questioned authorities over denying CPI(M) a Bongaon bookstall. It said permissions for festival stalls cannot be granted or denied selectively.
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Kolkata,Oct 14, 2026 17:28 IST
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday said the opposition's voice must not be stifled as it heard a CPI(M) petition seeking permission to set up a bookstall on Jessore Road in Bongaon during the Durga Puja festival.
The court questioned why the CPI(M) was allegedly prevented from setting up the stall while others were allowed to erect temporary structures at the site. It directed the officer in charge of Bongaon police station to conduct an inquiry and submit a report on Thursday.
The CPI(M)'s lawyer, Shamim Ahmed, claimed that a Hindu Jagran Manch stall had been set up at the spot near a Durga Puja pandal where the party had been putting up a temporary bookstall for the past 50 years.
"Don't stifle the voice of other parties, that is not the spirit of democracy," Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya observed.
When Advocate General Surojit Nath Mitra said nobody was trying to do so, the court responded, "It appears so."
Justice Bhattacharyya asked how another stall had been allowed at the same place where the CPI(M) proposed to set up its bookstall. He also asked whether the present BJP government had streamlined the system for setting up such stalls.
"In that event, there should be a uniform stand that nobody would be allowed to put up stalls without permission from the authority on a thoroughfare," Justice Bhattacharyya said.
The court said the proposed stall was a bookshop and not a lottery shop, and asked why it was being obstructed in this manner.
Ahmed told the court that the CPI(M) had informed the police and the sub-divisional officer about its plan to set up the bookstall. He claimed that when the temporary bamboo structure was being erected on October 1, alleged members of the Hindu Jagran Manch drove the workers away and set up their own stall.
He also claimed that the police took no action after a complaint was lodged.
The court said the issue for consideration was why the petitioner should be denied permission if others were allowed to erect temporary bamboo structures and run stalls.
It allowed the CPI(M) to file an additional affidavit with all relevant facts and documents to show that others had been permitted to set up stalls on the road during Durga Puja while it had not.
Justice Bhattacharyya directed the officer in charge of Bongaon police station to inquire whether others had set up stalls on Jessore Road without permission from the Public Works Department or other authorities and submit a report on Thursday.
The CPI(M) told the court that the sub-divisional officer had not granted it permission to set up the bookstall in Bongaon. During the hearing, the advocate general said the stall was proposed on Jessore Road and permission had been denied because the road was managed by the Public Works Department.
When the court asked whether others had set up stalls nearby, the advocate general said they might have done so.
Justice Bhattacharyya noted that hundreds of stalls were set up on main roads in north Kolkata during Durga Puja. He asked whether those stalls had received permission from the authorities and directed the advocate general to show one such approval.
The advocate general said permission from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation was required to set up stalls within its jurisdiction. Ahmed, however, said the civic body was only informed and that no permission was taken.
Justice Bhattacharyya said it could ultimately appear that stalls where people burst balloons with airguns were allowed, but bookstalls were not. He said permission to set up stalls could not be granted or denied on a selective basis.
Ahmed further said that after the petition was filed, the Hindu Jagran Manch set up a stall at the site, behind which a CPI(M) office is located.
The High Court will hear the CPI(M)'s petition again on Thursday after receiving the police inquiry report and the party's additional affidavit on whether other stalls were allowed at the site without permission.
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