[Covid19] Durga Pooja Pandals “No-entry zones” for public: Calcutta High Court

For the second consecutive year Durga Puja marquees (pandals) are to be “No-Entry” zones for the public in lieu of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The Calcutta High Court bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj reiterated its order as passed on the issue last year.

The Public Interest Litigation was filed seeking the Court's leave to direct the State authorities to ensure that proper arrangements are made so that there is no large gathering in puja pandals. The petition alsso asked for similar restrictions like last year.

On submissions made by Ld. Advocate General, the Court held:

The learned Advocate General submitted that he has sought instruction from the competent authority to state that even for this year the guidelines issued by this Court in the aforesaid orders dated October 19, 2020 and October 21, 2020 passed in WPA 8520 of 2020 shall be followed by the authorities concerned. In view of the aforesaid fair stand taken by the learned Advocate General, the present petition and the connected application are disposed of in terms of the aforesaid orders.

In its 11 pager order last year, Justice Arijit Banerjee and Sanjib Banerjee stated that it is necessary for an awareness campaign to be conducted even by the local media to request people to maintain the distancing norm and not to descend on the streets in hoards as in regular years to celebrate the DurgaPuja festival. The court directed the police to spread such awareness. The Court ha further order a 5m and 10m distancing zones for small and big puja pandal respectively. The Court allowed pandals 15 persons list who may have access to the small pandals at all times. Whereas, the number was 25 to 30 in respect of the bigger to the biggest pandals.

Durga Puja is the biggest festival in the state of West Bengal with around 3000 registered puja pandals in the city of Kolkata itself. It remains out of bounds of the eager public for the second consecutive time, in the hopes of returning next year.

Ajay Kumar De v. State of West Bengal