Mamata Banerjee’s Twitter status announcing ban on idol immersion on Muharram challenged in Calcutta High Court

A petition has been filed in the Calcutta High Court assailing a Twitter announcement by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee banning idol immersion on the day of Muharram..The petition, which has been filed by Youth Bar Association of India and its offices bearers Sanpreet Singh Ajmani, Kuldeep Rai, and Ricky Ray, through advocate Somnath Adhikary, states,.“on 23.08.2017 one status was aired from the Official Twitter account of our Hon’ble Chief Minister, West Bengal which speaks as “This year Durga Puja & Muharram fall on the same day. Except for a 24 hour period on the day of Muharram immersions can take place on October 2, 3 and 4. Apart from this subsequently in a public meeting the Hon’ble Chief Minister further clarified her order which is available on the “Youtube Channel” to the effect that “On the auspicious day of Vijay Dashami immersion of idols is permitted only upto 6p.m. and thereafter no immersion of idols shall take place before 2nd October, 2017.”.The petitioner has contended that the said announcement has hurt the religious sentiments of the majority community..“..petitioners state that the major community’s religious sentiment is hurt airing such impugned status on the official social account since the Hon’ble Chief Minister’s twitter account is followed by millions of followers …..due to the said impugned status the communal peace and harmony may also get affected or disturbed which is evident from the comments posted as a reply to the impugned status of the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal. It is further stated that being a state constitutional head it’s a responsibility of our Hon’ble Chief Minister to protect the right of each and every citizen as well as also to maintain the peace and harmony in the state as guaranteed in the Constitution of India.”.The petitioner has submitted that the announcement is in violation of Articles 14, 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India.“it is obligatory and mandatory on the part of state’s obligation to protect the interests of religious sects and prevent the miscreants from creating any nuisance in the wisdom of celebration of their respective festivals in the name of apprehended breach of law and order cannot be a ground for restraining the immersion of Goddess on the scheduled date as per the customs prevailing since ancient times. .Rather, in one event it is allowed to be enforceable, that will tantamount to unreasonable restrictions on the rights of a particular community to practice and profuse their religion which is contrary to and inconsistent with the provision of Constitution of India and particularly to the Part III as well as the preamble.”.The petitioner has further submitted that Mamata Banerjee, as the Constitutional head of the State, is responsible for maintaining and discharging constitutional duties bestowed upon her..“in today’s era when the social media holds the great impact on the public and sharing any such post and any message conveyed from the account of a public figure being legislative head, may adversely affect the society and may disturb communal peace and harmony which is evident from the replies/comments left on the instant impugned post of our Hon’ble Chief Minister”, the petition states..The petitioner has also alluded to a similar stand taken by the Chief Minister last year, which was quashed by the Calcutta High Court. Hence, the Chief Minister has not published any official gazette notification to that effect this year, instead has resorted to announcement on Twitter..“In the year 2016 the similar stand was taken by the said Chief Minister by way of public notification. She illegally tried to restrain the worshippers of Goddess Durga to immerse idols on the date scheduled for immersion as per the customs and rites prevailing since ancient times which was quashed and set aside by this Hon’ble Court..after last year’s experience the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal representing the State of West Bengal, has not published any official gazette and/or notification and/or bye laws and/or any other statutory and legislative instrument used as a formal means of declaration of the State.”.The petitioner has therefore, prayed for a direction to be issued to the West Bengal government to not give effect to the said Twitter announcement and to take steps to delete the said tweets..Speaking to Bar & Bench, State President Kuldeep Rai and State Secretary Mousomee Shome, of the petitioner association maintained “that India being a secular country, no State can enforce such restrictions on any religion or sect be it Muslim, Hindu, Christian or Sikh. Hence, we decided to file this petition so that a wrong precedent is not set by the State.”. The matter will be mentioned tomorrow for early listing..Update September 14, 2017: The matter was mentioned today by the petitioner and the court has agreed to list the case on September 20..Read the petition below.