BJP To Approach Top Court To Challenge Order Against Bengal Rath Yatras

A day after the Calcutta High Court asked the BJP to defer its three "Save Democracy" yatras in the state, the party today announced that it would move the vacation bench of the Supreme Court against the verdict.

The rallies were supposed to be launched from three different locations in the state, crisscrossing it before converging in Kolkata. The administration had earlier denied permission for the political rallies, saying they could trigger communal clashes in the state.

The BJP filed a plea, following which the party received the green signal from a single-judge bench of the same court on Thursday. Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty said that it failed to see the reasoning behind the government's argument and instead asked it to ensure that no breach of law-and-order occurs during the event. A jubilant BJP welcomed the verdict, and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took to social media to congratulate the Bengal party leadership.

The Mamata Banerjee government, however, appealed against the single-bench order before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Debasish Kargupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar. The division bench found the next day that Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty had not taken inputs from state intelligence agencies into account, and sent the case back with instructions that it study all the material submitted before arriving at a verdict.

After the initial favourable verdict from the single-judge bench, the BJP had planned to launch the first of its three yatras from Birbhum district on Saturday.