Calcutta High Court Permits Jamiat-e-Ulama Protest Rally in Kolkata
Times of India | 11 August 2026
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Monday permitted Jamiat-e-Ulama to hold their protest rally, against removal of loudspeaker from mosques, from Rajabazar to Moulali on Tuesday from 11.30 am to 1 pm. The judge called the administrative pattern of “routinely” denying permissions on Friday evenings requiring the court to sit on Saturdays being done with an “oblique motive”.
Though the single bench of HC gave permission for the rally from Rajabazar to Moulali, the participants were capped to 750. A set of conditions, common to other rallies granted permission by court, was imposed, requiring 10 volunteers to share their contact details with cops by 10 pm on Monday, no use of loudspeaker and only hand-mike and keeping one flank open.
Jamiat-e-Ulama had applied before cops on Aug 3 for a protest rally on Aug 11 with 2,000 participants from Rajabazar to Esplanade. The cops denied them permission on Aug 7 — a Friday — at 8:30 pm.
Irked by this, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya told AG Surajit Nath Mitra, “All intimations declining to grant permission are being communicated on Friday evening requiring this court repeatedly to sit during weekend. Do not do this…Every Saturday this court is having to sit to deal with meetings.”
The single judge pointed out that the decision on conducting such a rally could have been taken before. Moreover, the cops’ reply denying permission only had “busiest commercial and traffic corridors of Kolkata” as a reason. When the AG told the judge of a previous instance of alleged violence in procession conducted by the organisation, Justice Bhattacharyya held that the same was not mentioned in the mail denying permission and cannot be improved upon.
When the AG said the primary protest reason was SIR which is pending before the courts, Justice Bhattacharyya observed whether an organisation can be prevented from protesting, “It’s their right under Article 19 of Indian Constitution,” Justice Bhattacharyya observed. On continuous opposition by the AG against the rally route on a weekday, Justice Bhattacharyya remarked, “Is this the only procession being conducted in Kolkata for the past one year?”