No loudspeaker at Jodhpur Park school zone pandal: HC
Times of India | 9 November 2024
12 Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday lambasted a Jodhpur Park club, organising Jagaddhtari Puja, for playing loud music on loudspeakers and sound boxes during the celebration right next to a school for disabled children. "Your committee thinks they are bigger than the deity itself," said Chief Justice of Calcutta HC T S Sivagnanam.
The HC allowed Jodhpur Park Ananda Sangha to hold the puja on the condition that no sound boxes would be used and they would comply with the directions from the authorities. The puja committee submitted they gave an undertaking to police no sound box would be used. The school is on from 11 am to 3 pm.
The committee on Thursday approached the bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, which permitted the members to hold the puja provided the pandal size was kept at 12ft long and 8ft wide, keeping 27 ft of the road, including pavements on both sides, clear. The puja committee told the single-judge bench the pandalk would be dismantled by 6 am on Nov 13.
Not knowing the order of the single bench, a PIL was filed, seeking to restrain the committee from conducting the puja. About the sound boxes being used during the puja near the school for the disabled, the Calcutta HC Chief Justice said, "Your puja committee needs to have some concern for the neighbourhood. Your committee thinks they are bigger than the deity... Instead of having the idol, keep the (puja committee's) president's photograph as he thinks he is above the deity."
Sivagnanam further said, "Last year, I visited Chandernagore for Jagaddharti Puja, but this year I don't propose to go." Though he allowed the committee to hold the puja, he asked them to have regards for the people and ensure none is inconvenienced.