The Calcutta High Court has stayed the No Objection Certificate granted by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) to the CC Block Residents’ Welfare Association for organising this year’s Durga Puja in New Town, while directing the estate manager to reconsider competing representations from the association and the New Town CC Block Puja Samity.
The order was passed by Justice Krishna Rao after the puja samity challenged NKDA’s decision to issue the NOC to the residents’ association while its own application, submitted in July, remained pending, according to a report by the Times of India. The samity has been organising Durga Puja in the area since 2019.
The dispute concerns the authority’s handling of two groups seeking permission to organise the same community festival in CC Block. The court observed that both parties should have been heard if they had approached NKDA to conduct the puja, the report said.
The court’s intervention places the existing permission on hold and requires the estate manager to reconsider the representations made by both the residents’ association and the puja samity. The report does not specify a final decision on which group will receive permission after the reconsideration process.
The legal dispute had already affected preparations for the festival. The puja samity had begun work on its pandal and alleged that the residents’ association was preventing it from continuing. A lower court had also passed an interim injunction restraining the welfare association from collecting donations, according to the report.
The case highlights the administrative difficulty that can arise when community events in planned residential neighbourhoods involve competing associations, permission procedures and fundraising. In this instance, NKDA’s decision to grant an NOC to one group while the other’s application was pending became the central issue before the High Court.
The court has directed the NKDA estate manager to hear and reconsider the representations of both groups. Until that process is completed, the NOC granted to the residents’ welfare association remains stayed.
