The Calcutta High Court refused to pass any order directing to remove the display of shoes in a Durga Puja Pandal in the Dum Dum region of Kolkata. The shoes were displayed as a part of theme at a Durga Puja pandal.
Justice Kaushik Chanda was hearing a plea filed by a person named Santanu Singha who had filed a petition seeking directions to remove the slippers at the shoes at the pandal showed “disrespect” towards the Hindu deity Devi Durga and that they were “hurting” the sentiments of the people of West Bengal.
The petitioner got to know about the display of shoes from social media, he did not visit the panda personally.
The West Bengal Government was represented by Advocate General SN Mookerjee, who said that shoes were part of the Pandal’s “thematic display” which portrayed the protest of farmers against the farm laws introduced by the centre.
He also added that shoes were put outside the sanctum sanctorum of the pandal. Also a distance of 11 feet had been maintained between the display of shoes and the part where goddess Durga’s statue was installed.
Mookerjee said that a case has already been registered by Lake Town Police station on the basis of the complaint against the organisers of the pandal.
Justice Kaushik Chanda directed the Lake Town Police to present their investigation report on October 25 and he would not pass an interim order as it might grant relief sought in the petition.
Bhartiya Janta Party’s Suvendu Adhikari also demanded that the slippers should be removed from the pandal. A legal notice was sent by a Kolkata based lawyer to the organisers of the Durga Puja committee for hurting religious sentiments of Hindu people by using slippers and shoes at the Durga Pandal.
However, Prateek Chaudhary, the Secretary of the organising committee said that the motive behind putting the installation is to pull the attention of people towards farmer’s movement against the agriculture laws as well as on the violence that happened in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh.