High court okays govt Puja largesse.... declined to interfere with the government's decision to disburse grant to Durga Puja committees

TT, 11 Oct 2018, Calcutta: The high court on Wednesday declined to interfere with the Bengal government's decision to disburse Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 Durga Puja committees, accepting the administration's claim that judiciary had no authority to scan the state's expenditure under any head.

A public interest litigation challenging the largess was disposed of by a division bench of Calcutta High Court headed by Acting Chief Justice Debasish Kargupta.

The PIL by two advocates challenged the decision to spend Rs 28 crore from the state's coffers to "appease a particular community".

"This court is primarily satisfied with the state government's argument that the judiciary did not have the jurisdiction to interfere into the decision on its expenditure under any head and only the legislature has the authority to scan this issue," the division bench that consisted of Justice Shampa Sarkar also said in the order.

On Tuesday, advocate general Kishore Dutta had argued that a Supreme Court ruling had said not the courts, only the legislature had the authority to raise questions on expenditure incurred by governments under any head.

He said even taxpayers did not have the right to move courts challenging the directive on government expenditure.

"Only members of legislative Assembly have the right to raise such questions on the floor of the house," said Dutta.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who was representing the petitioners, said later in the evening that he would move the Supreme Court against Wednesday's order.

With the high court disposing of the PIL, the state government can proceed with its decision and give doles to the puja committees.

The two advocates had moved the PIL in the high court on September 19, eight days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had declared that her government would give Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 community puja committees across the state.

When the matter came up for hearing before the division bench on October 5, Justice Kargupta expressed surprise over the government's decision and issued an interim order restraining the state from proceedings with its decision. The stay on fund disbursal caused worries at Nabanna as the administration was clueless as to how to handle the issue in case the verdict went against it.

After the court's order on Wednesday, a senior advocate said: "Before justifying maintainability of cases, courts often make observations. Since the observations are made in open courts, they reach the public through the media. After the disposal of the cases, like the one that was rejected on maintainability ground on Wednesday, confusion prevails in the minds of the people because of the observations." During the hearing, the division bench had asked the state government several questions.