Congregations, processions in public places: India

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

Judgements of Superior courts

No one can claim a public place as a right: Calcutta HC, 2025

April 12, 2025: The Times of India

Kolkata : Calcutta HC refused permission Friday to a Hindu organisation for a Hanuman Chalisa recital on Red Road in the heart of the city to mark Hanuman Jayanti, saying “no one can claim a public place as a matter of right”, reports Subrata Chattoraj.


Hindu Seva Dal, the organiser of Saturday’s proposed paath, moved court after Kolkata Police proposed two alternative sites for the event even though the Army, the custodian of Red Road, said it had no objection.


The petitioner’s counsel argued in court that Eid prayers were held at the same spot on March 31 and that police never objected to the state govt holding a Durga Puja carnival there every autumn. Justice Tirthankar Ghosh said the Eid congregation on Red Road had “a history” going back decades.

Eid congregation was moved to Red Road in 1919: Judge

Eid congregation was shifted from Shahid Minar to Red Road back in 1919, when Shahid Minar got waterlogged, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh said.


The judge wanted to know whether a Hanuman Chalisa recital had ever been organised on Red Road. “The main thrust of your argument is that permission was given to another community, and hence it should be given to you,” Justice Ghosh told the petitioner’s counsel. Advocate general Kishore Datta pointed out that the puja carnival was part of National List of Heritage Programmes and linked to a festival with a Unesco heritage tag.


He cited a 1994 SCjudgment in which it said permission to organise prayers in a public place was subject to the site’s religious significance. “I do not have the right to worship or offer prayers at any and every place. The petitioner must show that the place has religious significance integral to the religion,” Datta said.


When counsel for the petitioner next moved division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das), the former initially declined to admit the plea. “I don’t want to hear petitions on Hanuman Jayanti and Ram Navami anymore,” Chief Justice Sivagnanam said.


Although the organisation was allowed to file the petition, the division bench declined to overrule the single judge bench’s order. “For establishment of a right to hold any religious practice at a public place for the first time, the right has to be established before the court of law through the exchange of affidavits,” Justice Ghosh said.


The bench kept the matter open for adjudication and directed that it be included in the list of cases slated for July.