Curbs on rallies: Court seeks political parties’ views
By IANSThursday, February 3, 2011
KOLKATA - The Calcutta High Court Thursday asked all political parties for suggestions to avoid public inconvenience caused by rallies staged on city roads.
The division bench of Justice P.C. Ghose and Justice Shukla Kabir (Sinha) said: “We want suggestions from all the (political) parties. All must endeavour to find a solution. All the parties concerned should give their suggestions so that collectively we can arrive at a solution.”
The court gave the political parties three months to file their replies on the issue a petitioner has raised through a public interest litigation.
The court also accepted the petitioner’s plea that views of environmentalists, traffic management experts, city planners and educationists should be sought.
Environmental activist Subhash Dutta filed his petition in 2003 for a ban on rallies in important and arterial roads of Kolkata, claiming that these caused huge monetary loss and inconvenience to the common man.
Talking to reporters, Dutta later Thursday said: “Since it is the political parties which hold rallies the most, the court has asked them to give their suggestions on the matter.”
“The parties have been staging rallies since long. The court cannot in a single go ban the holding of such rallies. The court has asked all the parties to give their suggestions so that a solution can be arrived at,” Dutta added.
