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After Calcutta High Court, through its judgment, refused to entertain the petition challenging the funding for Durga Puja festival’s funding by West Bengal’s government, the Supreme Court has agreed to take up the petition. The bench hearing the matter is headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi. The counsel appearing for the petitioners argued that there have no set of guidelines laid down with regards to spending of a huge amount of 28 crore Rupees. The total was arrived at after multiplying the gift of 10,000 Rupees each that the Trinamool Congress has decided to give to 28,000 Durga Pooja committees across the state. Chief Justice Gogoi has listed the matter for hearing tomorrow. The decision of the state government of funding Durga Pooja committees was challenged in the High Court by two residents of the states as being against the spirit of secularism embodied in the Constitution of India. The residents also contended that the said use of the money of tax-payers of the state violated Article 27 of the Constitution since compelling people to pay tax the proceeds of which would be utilized for promotion of religion is against the corpus of the above mentioned article. The High Court division bench that heard the matter, comprising of Acting Chief Justice DebashishKar Gupta and Justice Sampa Sarkar, said that the Legislature is the appropriate forum for deciding the matter and the Court would not interfere. However, the bench said that the court may interfere at a later stage. Advocate General Kishore Dutta, appearing for the state, said that the funds would be used for assisting police in maintain security during the festival and not for religious purposes. The High Court’s decision has now been challenged in the Supreme Court.
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