HC allows Durga idol immersion on all days, including Muharram

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court today allowed immersion of Durga idols on all days from Vijayadashami on September 30, including on Muharram, and directed the West Bengal government to make necessary security arrangements.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rakesh Tiwari and Justice Harish Tandon asked the state government to chalk out designated routes for immersion and tazia processions.

It said that immersion of Durga idols would be held on all days from Vijayadashami on September 30 according to the Hindu almanac, including that on Muharram on October one when such processions were prohibited by the state administration.

The bench also directed the state government to put out advertisements giving information about the routes and also for ensuring amity and harmony between the communities. It declined a plea of the Trinamool Congress government for a stay on the order.

It asked the state authorities to file an affidavit on the prayers made by the petitioners within three weeks after the puja holidays and the petitioners to give their reply within another two weeks.

The matter would come up for hearing again five weeks after the vacation. The state government had imposed restrictions on Durga idol immersions on September 30, the Vijayadashami day, after 10 pm and said no immersion would be allowed on October one, the day Muharram is scheduled to be observed.

The directions by the high court came on three public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the restrictions on the immersion of idols at the end of the five-day Durga puja festival.