KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the West Bengal Government to furnish details of accounts submitted by the clubs that had received Durga Puja grants from the state in previous years, through an affidavit within 48 hours. A division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De also asked the state to file an affidavit on what steps it had taken against the clubs that did not submit the utilisation certificate of the grant.
The Calcutta High Court had several times directed recipients of Durga Puja grants to submit accounts of the utilised grants. The bench passed the direction on hearing a writ petition, which stated that many of the 20,000-odd clubs did not submit the utilisation certificate of the government grant.
Why would grants be given even if they have not submitted expenditure accounts, the court questioned.
The bench observed that earlier, puja committees were asked to submit ‘utilisation certificates’ on where and how much money was being spent on government grants. How many puja committees have not submitted that certificate? Are grants being given despite not doing so? The High Court asked the state on Monday.
In his submission, Advocate General Kishore Datta said that the high court had never turned down the state's decision to give Durga Puja grants to clubs. Datta pleaded to fix the matter for next hearing after the Durga Puja, when the state would submit the affidavit.
"What importance will this petition have if it is heard after the pujas? It has been stated in the petition that many clubs were not submitting accounts despite recurrent orders from the high court to submit utilisation accounts. Therefore, if the court intends to take steps in this regard, it has to be before the pujas," the bench observed.
The division bench will hear the matter on Wednesday.
A person named Sourav Dutta filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Calcutta High Court regarding the grant to the Durga Puja committees. He alleged that government money is being misused. His lawyers, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and Shamim Ahmed, argued that the government is giving away public money to the puja committees without spending it in the right place.
However, the state's argument was that the money was given to be used for the benefit of the people, and the police were spending the money to raise awareness about the 'Safe Drive Save Life' campaign. The money was also spent to ensure several restrictions during COVID-19.
At that time, the high court had ordered that the puja committees would have to give details of accounts of where the government grant was being spent.
The plaintiff's lawyer alleged that many puja committees had not submitted the accounts. Soon after, the high court sought the state's statement on the matter. The high court also raised the question of why a grant would be given to a puja committee even though it had not submitted the utilization certificate.