Setting aside objections of the West Bengal government, the Calcutta high court on Friday granted conditional permission to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to hold a rally in Purba Bardhaman district on February 16.
Organisers of the rally, which RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is scheduled to address, had moved court after the state authorities denied permission on grounds that the use of loudspeakers during the ongoing Madhyamik Pariksha (secondary exams) would cause disturbance to examinees.
The bench of Justice Amrita Sinha granted permission for the rally, planned on Sunday when no exams are scheduled, provided the organisers kept a check on the strength of the attending crowd as well as on the volume of the sound boxes and ensure that examinees appearing for the ongoing secondary exams and the upcoming higher secondary exams are not inconvenienced.
The event, where the RSS's Sarsanghchalak is supposed to address volunteers and their family members for an hour and fifteen minutes, from 11 am to 12.15 pm, would be held inside the Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex in the Talit area of the district, the petitioner submitted.
Appearing on behalf of the RSS, Centre's deputy solicitor general Diraj Trivedi argued that the organisation has already secured permission from SAI authorities to host the event which would be held over a plot of 5,000 square feet, a mere fraction of the 7.2 lakh square feet area of the said complex.
The petitioner's counsel further submitted that the organisers, faced with objection from district authorities, have decided to replace loudspeakers with sound boxes and held that sound would remain limited to within the event surroundings.
"The only two schools, which are close to the venue are about one and two kilometres away, respectively. The venue is uninhabited and we do not come under the purview of the state order that prohibits the use of loudspeakers during examination times," Trivedi argued.
Referring to the February 2022 state environment department notification that prohibits the use of loudspeakers and public address systems three days prior to the commencement of secondary and HS exams in areas where educational institutions are located, Advocate General Kishor Dutta submitted that the organisers have informed usage of 45 sound boxes to address a gathering of about 10,000 people.
"The said notice was issued in compliance with an order passed by this very court in August 1998. The petitioner should have been aware of the imposition of such restrictions during exam periods and ought to have scheduled their event outside the period of the prohibitory order," Dutta submitted.
The court observed that the date of the event does fall during the period of the ongoing secondary examinations conducted by the state board.
"However, as the event has been scheduled on a Sunday for only one hour and fifteen minutes, and according to the instruction of the state respondent, the nearest school is nearly 500 metres away from the complex, accordingly the court permits the petitioner to conduct the event in such a manner that it does not cause any convenience to any of the examinees who may be busy with their examination preparation," the court stated in its order.
"The petitioner should try to behave in a responsible manner and ensure that the sound is kept to the minimum level so as not to cause any difficulty to any person," the order added.
This is the second time that the RSS moved the high court to secure permission for its event in the state.
Earlier, in January 2017, the Calcutta High Court quashed the city police's denial of permission to the organisation to hold a two-day 'Hindu Sammelan' at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata where Bhagwat was the key speaker.
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