Public places: India
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Judgements of Superior courts
Congregations, processions/ 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.
Rallyists should not occupy more than 1/3rd of road: Calcutta HC, 2025
July 2, 2025: The Times of India
Kolkata : Calcutta HC asked police to ensure that rallies and marches do not occupy more than one-third of a road’s width, leaving the rest of space for vehicular movement so that commuters do not suffer, report Subrata Chattoraj & Srishti Lakhotia .
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh’s direction to Kolkata Police came while granting permission to Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha to hold a protest rally against the sexual assault at a law college.
The rally is scheduled between 1 pm and 5 pm on Wednesday from Kalighat metro station to the opposite flank of the law college. Justice Ghosh made it clear the directive to restrict the width of the rally was meant not just for Wednesday, but for all marches in future, irrespective of which political party or organisation organises it.
BJP’s youth wing approached HC after the state turned down their proposal to take out the rally from Kalighat metro station to Kasba police station. Justifying its refusal, govt told the court that there had been instances of violence in front of the police station in the recent past.
HC allowed the rally, but told the organisers that no attempt should be made to injure anyone, throw brickbats or turn aggressive against public servants, and remove the barricades around the law college or the Kasba police station.
During a hearing in a separate case, Justice Ghosh asked the state to come up with a notification earmarking areas where sit-in protests can be held.
Definition of public place
June 24, 2025: The Times of India
Kolkata : Eden Gardens can’t be labelled “a public place” just because thousands of spectators visit the stadium to watch cricket matches, Calcutta HC ruled last week while upholding a 2015 verdict dismissing Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s claim to Rs 51 lakhodd in taxes from Cricket Association of Bengalfor on-site advertising during 1996 WC, reports Srishti Lakhotia.
“The only criterion must be whether or not members of public have an unrestricted right of access to that place,” said the June 19 order by a division bench of Justices Arijit Banerjee and Kausik Chanda. “The Maidan in Kolkata is indisputably a public place. The riverside is also a public place.” Eden Gardens is owned by the defence ministry andis leased to the CAB.
The bench kept the matter open for adjudication and directed that it be included in the list of cases slated for July.
