No bar on TMC's July 21 rally but Calcutta HC adds 11am rider
Times of India | 18 July 2025
KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Thursday refused to stop the July 21 rally from going ahead but told police that congregations could happen only after 11am to allow normal office-time traffic.
The HC, which would hear the case again on Friday, also asked Trinamool Congress whether it was willing to "change with time" and shift its July 21 Martyrs' Day rally to Brigade Parade Ground, Shahid Minar or Salt Lake Stadium from next year.
Trinamool has been holding its Martyrs' Day rally for the past three decades in front of CESC office at Victoria House in Esplanade in remembrance of 13 party workers gunned down by police at the spot in 1993. CM Mamata Banerjee, then with Congress, was leading the protest demanding mandatory voter ID cards. This has inlaid the Trinamool argument that the Victoria House rally spot has an emotional connect and its choice follows hard logic.
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, however, said that "all places" could have "emotional attachments for all political parties". "How long will people tolerate this? Declare a state holiday. Are you in a position to state that there will be no traffic congestion?" he asked Trinamool counsel Biswaroop Chowdhury.
"I will not touch the programme without exchange of affidavits. But I will have a full hearing because this programme has been held at some other venue. It was conducted on Brigade Parade Ground in 2011. You do it this year - I will put some restrictions - but you have to change with time. There must be an undertaking from your client that they will (change) from next year," Justice Ghosh said.
Advocate-general Kishore Datta, speaking for Kolkata Police, questioned the timing of the litigations barely four days before the rally. Can't change rally venue at last moment: Judge Advocate-general Kishore Datta said, "Why could they (the petitions) not come in Jan? These are attention-seeking litigations. How long will the judiciary be burdened with this kind of petitions? This is not happening now; this has been happening for over three decades. This (court cases) happens every year, PILs are filed and people forget about it once it is over," he said.
Kolkata Police issued a notification earlier this week, saying there would be traffic restrictions on Bidhan Sarani, College Street, Strand Road, BB Ganguly Street, CIT Road and Rabindra Sarani from 4 am to 9 pm. "Your purpose is monitoring traffic," Justice Ghosh told KP. He then told the petitioners (All-India Lawyers' Union): "There is no scope for refusal (to hold the rally altogether). You should have come earlier. There will be restrictions but I cannot change the venue at the last moment.
"Datta argued that there would be some traffic regulations if people hit the streets for a programme: "It happens during Durga Puja, during Brigade Parade meetings, it happens when other gatherings are there. This is not something new. There are traffic regulations when whichever political party does something on Rani Rashmoni Road.
"Justice Ghosh, however, insisted on the restrictions till 11 a.
m.: "Let the processions enter the Kolkata zone after 11 am once the office time is over. I have been asking you to demarcate areas (for rallies). You build a stadium for this.