Kolkata: The state cannot pick and choose to allow setting up of stalls and that “stifling other parties’ voice was not the spirit of democracy”, the Calcutta High Court said in a case, in which the CPM was barred from setting up a book stall in front of its Bongaon party office but Hindu Jagran Manch reportedly could.The state moved a division bench, challenging whether Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya, who was hearing police action matters, could hear this case, which they claimed was a land matter.The counsel for CPM, Samim Ahmed, informed the single bench of Justice Bhattacharyya that after the case was filed, Hindu Jagran Manch had built their stall in front of the CPM’s party office. Their case was not to dismantle Manch’s stall but to let CPM set up a book stall beside it. Pulling the state up, Justice Bhattacharyya observed, “I can understand if a procedure is formulated that the persons intending to erect the stall on or beside PWD road will have to obtain permission from PWD and then they can erect a stall, in that event I can understand. But not on the basis of pick and choose—one will be permitted and another won’t be—It’s not a lottery shop to be erected. It’s a book stall to be set up, and will that be obstructed in such a manner?” The inspector-in-charge of Bongaon Police Station was directed to find out whether other stalls erected in the area had “PWD permission or not” and submit a report on Thursday.The state, represented by advocate general (AG) Surajit Nath Mitra and additional advocate general (AAG) Bilwadal Bhattacharya, stressed that the land on which the CPM stall was supposed to be built belonged to PWD and that applications to the SDO or OC would not help as they were not the right authorities. They even claimed that the case should be heard by a judge hearing land matters and not police action.But Justice Bhattacharyya maintained that the police had a role to play and thus, he could hear the case. The state sought to stay the order, and later went to Chief Justice Ravindra Vitalrao Ghuge’s bench, which is likely to hear the challenge on Thursday. In its petition, CPM specified an incident of Oct 6 in Bongaon.Around 6.30 am, when the party had started work on building the book stall, people, associated allegedly with Hindu Jagran Mancha, obstructed them, CPM claimed. CPM workers were allegedly assaulted and threatened against putting up book stalls.
