The high court on Wednesday directed the state government not to disburse its puja grant to those organisers who failed to submit utilisation certificates of last year.
According to the state government’s submission, only three out of 44,675 Durga Puja committees that got the grant in 2024 have not submitted their utilisation certificates.
Of the 44,675 across Bengal, 2,876 were in Calcutta.
All Calcutta pujas have submitted their utilisation certificates.
The bench of Justice Sujay Paul and Justice Smita Das De pointed out that puja committees that have submitted utilisation certificates will be eligible for a grant of ₹1.1 lakh announced by chief minister Mamata Banerjee in July.
The committees that will receive the grant will have to submit utilisation certificates either to the commissioner of Kolkata Police or to the director-general of the state police within a month of Vijaya Dasahami (October 2), the court said.
The case will be heard again after the Puja holidays.
The high court has been hearing two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) challenging the state government’s decision to increase the annual grant from ₹85,000 to ₹1.1 lakh.
One of the litigants, Sourav Dutta of Durgapur, had questioned how the state exchequer’s money could be given to Durga Puja committees.
Dutta’s counsel, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and Shamim Ahmed, argued that the money was being distributed among puja committees instead of being utilised for the state’s development.
Advocate-general Kishore Datta informed the court that 41,799 puja committees across the state had received grants of ₹85,000 last year. The advocate-general quoted the number for Bengal, excluding the Pujas in Calcutta.
“Only three puja committees under the jurisdiction of the Siliguri police commissionerate did not submit their utilisation certificates,” Datta told the court.
A separate report on “utilisation of funds toward awarding the puja grants to Community Durga Puja Committees/Clubs/Organisations under Kolkata Police “ from the joint commissioner of police (headquarters) of Kolkata Police said that 2,876 puja committees had encashed the cheque awarded to them last year. All of them submitted their utilisation certificates.
Lawyer Bhattacharyya contended: “The report by the advocate-general is incorrect.”
Justice Paul said the court was not interested in whether the AG’s submission was correct or not. He added that the state will have to follow the 2022 Calcutta High Court order this year.
In 2022, a division bench had said that while the court will not interfere with the government’s decision to offer grants to registered
puja committees, they will have to submit utilisation certificates with supporting vouchers to SDOs in the district and designated officers under the jurisdiction of
Kolkata Police.
While announcing the grant of ₹1.1 lakh on July 31, Mamata made it a point to remind her audience of the many jobs the festival generates.
“When I hold this meeting, some people move court. Some ask why they (Puja organisers) should be aided,” Mamata said. “Arre bhai, this is a festival. So many people get work because of Puja.”