Opposition leaders will be able to sit on dharna outside Raj Bhavan, Calcutta High Court gave conditional permission

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Calcutta High Court (file photo)

suvendu adhikari, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Shubhendu Adhikari will now be able to protest outside the Raj Bhavan. Let us tell you that on Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court allowed Shubhendu Adhikari and others to hold a peaceful protest for four hours outside the Raj Bhavan on July 14.

What is the whole matter?

Adhikari, the BJP MLA from Nandigram, had prayed the High Court to allow him to stage a dharna outside the Raj Bhavan against the alleged post-poll violence against the opposition party workers at the same place where the Trinamool Congress had demonstrated in October, 2023.

The court gave conditional permission to protest

Justice Amrita Sinha allowed a maximum of 300 people to sit on a dharna for four hours on July 14 with the condition that it should be completely peaceful and no person will reach there with any firearm. Justice Sinha said that no inflammatory speech will be given during the protest which may provoke people.

What argument did the West Bengal government give?

Advocate General Kishore Dutta, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the High Court that Adhikari and others would be allowed to protest for four hours from 10 am outside the Raj Bhavan on July 14. Seeking permission to protest outside the Raj Bhavan, Adhikari’s counsel had said that the ruling party (TMC) had staged a sit-in there for five days in October 2023.

Police did not give permission for the protest

The state government had earlier said that there was a ban on the gathering of people under Section 144 of the CrPC. During the last hearing, Shubhendu Adhikari’s lawyer Bilawal Bhattacharya had said that his plea for permission to hold a dharna at the same place of Raj Bhavan against the alleged post-election violence on opposition party workers was rejected by the Kolkata Police citing administrative reasons.