Calcutta High Court dismisses "politically motivated" PIL against conduct of BJP's Rath Yatra

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition against the conduct of the Rath Yatra this month by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) terming the plea moved by a lawyer attached to the Trinamul legal cell as "politically motivated" (Ramaprasad Sarkar v Union of India and others). .The petitioner, Ramaprasad Sarkar had contended that the conduct of the Rath Yatra may result in spread of COVID-19 and create law and order problems. .A Bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Aniruddha Roy, however, opined that petitioner's position as a lawyer who is part of the Calcutta High Court Trinamul Law Cell, which is affiliated with the political party in presently in power in West Bengal, had rendered the writ petition politically motivated. ."Filing of a writ petition by an advocate, who is directly connected with a political party in power raising issues against other political party during election time cannot be said to be in larger public interest. It can be said to be a private interest litigation," the order said..Moreover, the Court also took note of the submission made by Additional Solicitor General YJ Dastoor that the petitioner may not have sent his representation against the conduct of the Rath Yatra in time for the authorities to take a call on the issue. .In this regard, it was argued that while the petitioner's representation is dated February 2, there is nothing to show that he had sent the representation on that date. Further, the writ petition was filed in the High Court on February 3. ."The fact remains that when the writ petition was filed in this court, the representation filed by the petitioner may not have even been received by the addressees therein, even if sent by the petitioner," the Bench opined, on this aspect..In any case, it is for the authorities in the State to have considered the issues raised, the Court added. Further noting that the Rath Yatra was scheduled to commence from February 6 and given that a "number of political rallies are being held at different places in the State", the Bench proceeded to dismissed the PIL.."For the reasons mentioned above, we do not find that the present writ petition can be entertained as a public interest litigation. The same is, accordingly, dismissed," the Court said..Advocates Achintya Kumar Banerjee and Indumouli Banerjee appeared for the petitioner, who also appeared party in person. Apart from ASG Dastoor, Advocates Phiroze Edulji, Mrinalini Majumdar and RK Shah appeared for the Central Government. .Senior Advocates Mahesh Jethmalani and Dhiraj Trivedi, with M/s Neelanchan Bhattacharya and Advocates Billwadal Bhattacharya, Vikash Singh, Rajdeep Majumdar, Mayukh Mukherjee, KP Dalpaty and Rahul Singh appeared for intervenors. .Advocates Partha Ghosh and Amal Kumar Dutta appeared for other respondents in the matter. .Advocate General Kishore Datta, Additional Government Pleader Abhratosh Majumdar and Advocate Sayan Sinha, appeared for the State. .[Read Order]