In a major setback to the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday overruled a single bench order which had denied permission to the Bharatiya Janata Party to hold a rath yatra in the state till January 9.
The division bench headed by Justice Biswanath Samaddar lashed out at advocate general Kishore Dutta for not responding to BJP's application for permission to hold the rath yatra.
The court asked the chief secretary, the home secretary and the director general of police to sit with three BJP representatives by December 12 and finalise the route and procedure of the rath yatra. They would have to inform the court about their decision by December 14.
The court questioned the single bench order, saying that the decision to stretch the case till January 9 would result in giving only an academic permission rather than serving its actual purpose.
The division bench asked the advocate general why the state government sat over the application submitted by the BJP on October 29. As Dutta failed to give a proper justification to the state administration's decision, the court told him not to be bias and called the no-response of the state government as an "astounding silence".
"Why do you see the colour of the political party? Why don't you give space to the opposition party as well?" a lawyer quoted one of the judges as saying. The court also said that decision of the state government, after meeting the BJP leaders, could not be arbitrary and without reason.
The verdict of the division bench is seen as a major embarrassment for the Mamata Banerjee government. No leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress has agreed to respond to the verdict so far.
A buoyant BJP said party president Amit Shah would hold a meeting on Saturday with top BJP leaders in the state to chalk out its strategy.
"What can I say? It's a big defeat for the state government and the ruling party? The rath yatra will happen and Mamata Banerjee would not be able to stop it," said Biswapriya Roy Chowdhury, state vice president of the JP.
Earlier, Shah lambasted the chief minister in Delhi. "Mamata Banerjee would not be able to stop us in Bengal. We would march ahead in Bengal and the rath yatra would happen with the consent of the court."
It remains to be seen whether state government would go to the Supreme Court against the verdict.