The Calcutta High Court has stayed an earlier order granting police protection to a CPM book stall in Bongaon and directed authorities to remove all roadside stalls without permission, including one set up by Hindu Jagran Mancha. The division bench said the law must apply equally to all organisations using public land and roads during Durga Puja.
The order was passed on Friday by a division bench presided over by Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge. The bench also stayed the order of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya, who had directed the police to provide protection to the CPM while examining whether other stalls beside a Public Works Department road and on PWD land had received the required permissions.
The division bench said the question of which judge should hear the dispute—one dealing with land matters or one hearing issues involving police action—would be decided after the Durga Puja vacation. Until then, the single-judge order remains stayed.
The case arose after the CPM moved the high court, alleging that its workers were assaulted by members of Hindu Jagran Mancha on October 6 while they were putting up a book stall in Bongaon. The CPM had sought police protection for the stall. The Hindu Jagran Mancha subsequently erected a stall, whose permission status was also questioned during the hearing.
The state government told the division bench that it would verify whether the Hindu Jagran Mancha had obtained permission to erect its stall. The court directed the Additional Advocate General to ensure that the police investigate the matter and take immediate steps to remove the stall if no permission had been sought and granted.
The bench directed that all stalls without permission should be removed. It also rejected the argument that the CPM had operated a roadside book stall during Sharodotsav and Durga Puja for about 50 years without needing permission. The court observed that selling books from such a stall constituted a commercial activity and that the same rules had to be followed by everyone.
The earlier order had also raised concerns over the absence of a state report on whether other stalls beside the PWD road and on PWD land had obtained approval from the PWD or another state authority. Justice Bhattacharyya had questioned how one organisation could be allowed to operate while another was denied permission, and had directed the police to consider the highway authorities’ position before taking action.
During Friday’s hearing, CPM counsel and senior advocate Samim Ahmed suggested that the organisation could replace the stall with a table and umbrella for selling books. The state opposed that proposal. The division bench’s direction leaves the permission status of each stall as the central basis for enforcement while the jurisdictional issue awaits a decision after the Puja vacation.
