Salt Lake stadium: Fair or foul? A Telegraph picture

A high court lawyer filed a public interest litigation on Thursday, challenging the legality of the state government’s decision to hold Book Fair 2008 at Salt Lake stadium.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar asked the petitioner, Tapas Chatterjee, to serve notices on the state respondents and decided to hear the matter on February 22.

But the state authorities declined to accept the notice, telling the petitioner that they needed at least 48 hours to prepare for the case. The matter is likely to be heard on February 25.

The petitioner alleged that neither had the state cabinet okayed the decision to hold the fair nor was there any budgetary allocation for the event, which is being organised by the government.

“Book Fair comes under the purview of the education or the cultural department. How can the transport and sports departments organise it?” asked Chatterjee, pleading for an order restraining the state from holding the fair at the stadium.

The lawyer also pointed out that the matches of IFA Cup would be hampered by the fair, which is scheduled to start on February 29. “Salt Lake stadium has been built to promote sports, not to host fairs,” he submitted.

He argued that if the fair could not be held on the Maidan because of environmental reasons, it should not be held in Salt Lake stadium either.

A state panel lawyer said: “We do not think the petition is maintainable, as the petitioner’s only objective is to prevent the government from holding the fair.”