Eid congregation was moved to Red Road in 1919: Judge

Eid congregation was shifted from Shahid Minar to Red Road back in 1919, when Shahid Minar got waterlogged, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh said.

The judge wanted to know whether a Hanuman Chalisa recital had ever been organised on Red Road. "The main thrust of your argument is that permission was given to another community, and hence it should be given to you," Justice Ghosh told the petitioner's counsel. Advocate general Kishore Datta pointed out that the puja carnival was part of National List of Heritage Programmes and linked to a festival with a Unesco heritage tag .

He cited a 1994 SC judgment in which it said permission to organise prayers in a public place was subject to the site's religious significance. "I do not have the right to worship or offer prayers at any and every place. The petitioner must show that the place has religious significance integral to the religion," Datta said.

When counsel for the petitioner next moved division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das), the former initially declined to admit the plea. "I don't want to hear petitions on Hanuman Jayanti and Ram Navami anymore," Chief Justice Sivagnanam said.

Although the organisation was allowed to file the petition, the division bench declined to overrule the single judge bench's order. "For establishment of a right to hold any religious practice at a public place for the first time, the right has to be established before the court of law through the exchange of affidavits," Justice Ghosh said.

The bench kept the matter open for adjudication and directed that it be included in the list of cases slated for July.