District judge to oversee Gajan festival, ensure SC entry to Nadia temple: HC
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh pulled up the Nadia police at the previous hearing on Monday, asking if people now have to assert their right to participate in a festival
KOLKATA: Members of the scheduled caste (SC) community can enter the Shiva temple at Nadia district’s Bairampur village and perform rituals during the upcoming Gajan festival on April 8, the Calcutta high court ordered on Friday, lawyers who attended the hearing said.
“A district judge will oversee the festival till it ends. He will direct the Nadia police superintendent to deploy additional police force if there is any law and order issue,” a bench of justice Tirthankar Ghosh ruled.
The police must ensure that members of the SC community take part in the festival without any problem, the bench said on a petition filed by Jatan Das and others from Bairampur following an agitation launched by the Paschim Banga Samajik Nyay Mancha, a social rights group which alleged that 150 SC families at the village could not take part in the festival for more than a century.
The petitioners alleged that the authorities did not take action despite several complaints since 2024 when some SC community members who wanted to break the taboo and take part in the Gajan festival were prevented by upper caste people. The petitioners alleged that they were assaulted and threatened.
During the last hearing on Monday, justice Ghosh pulled up the Nadia district police saying: “This problem was not there in the West Bengal we know. Do people have to assert their right to participate in a festival?”
Representing the petitioners, lawyer Shamim Ahmed told the court that the SC community was being subjected to caste discrimination although the Shiva temple was a community property.
Swapan Banerjee, the state’s counsel, said during the hearing that the district administration held a meeting on March 5 with members of the SC community where the latter acknowledged that many years ago their predecessors had pledged not to enter the temple or take part in the festival which is held in the open.
The SC community hasn’t been participating in the festival because of an old tradition and not because of caste discrimination, Banerjee told the court.
Responding to this, justice Ghosh observed: “If this is not a caste-based problem then police should ensure that these people can participate. The police cannot solve a problem in a manner that gives advantage only to the dominant.”
The SC community at Bairampur welcomed the verdict. “The high court has given us a new lease of life by ending this discrimination,” Ujjal Das, a villager, told the local media.
Alokesh Das, a member of the Paschim Banga Samajik Nyay Mancha, said : “We ran from pillar to post to give these people a basic right but the administration did not cooperate. Some officers even told the SC community members not to disturb the status quo in the village.”
No Nadia district police official commented on the judgement.
