Calcutta High Court directs Bengal Police to allow Suvendu Adhikari's rally within 30 minutes

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the district police administration in West Bengal's Bankura to grant permission for a political rally and meeting of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari within 30 minutes.

The meeting of LoP is scheduled at Kotulpur in Bankura district on late Wednesday evening.

But since the police permission was not granted since Wednesday morning, Adhikari approached the single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the matter.

After hearing the matter, Justice Gangopadhyay directed the Bankura district police superintendent Vaibhav Tiwari to grant the permission within the 30 minutes.

Justice Gangopadhyay also said that in case the police permission for the meeting is not granted within the specified deadline, the police superintendent will have to be virtually present in front of his bench and explain why the court order not abided by.

To recall, last week BJP legislator from Kotulpur Harakali Protihar joined Trinamool Congress in presence of the party's national general secretary and party Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee.

So the leader of the opposition deliberately chose Katulpur as the venue of his post-Puja rally and meeting to send a message to the grassroots level workers that Protihar's exit will not have any impact on the party.

This is not the first time that the state administration and police had to face the Calcutta High Courts' ire for not permitting political rallies of the LoP.

A number of judges of the Calcutta High Court had earlier observed that it was unfortunate that every time one has to approach the court for permission if the programme is of the opposition party or an issue that is against the state government.