The Rs 50,000 granted by the Bengal government to each puja cannot be used for any purpose other than buying sanitisers, masks, face shields and other articles of Covid protection and strengthening the “bonding” between police and people, Calcutta High Court said in an interim order on Friday.

A division bench headed by Justice Sanjib Banerjee said that 75 per cent of the money should be spent on sanitisers, masks and the like. The rest should be spent on police-people bonding, which should include facilitation of the involvement of women in community policing.

The state government had earlier said the money was being granted for sanitisation purposes.

On Friday, the court made the puja committee office-bearers “personally responsible” for ensuring that the grant is spent only on these counts.

The court “prima facie accepted that since Durga Puja may be the biggest festival in the state, irrespective of such festival being connected with a religious occasion, the festivities can be the springboard for promoting socially relevant programmes and there may not be any religious flavour to such secular programmers being pursued. The primary purpose in this case is... to strengthen the bond between the police authorities and the citizens and facilitating the involvement of women in assisting community policing activities.”

It asked the puja organisers to furnish by November 10 their bills of expenditure and utilisation certificates before sub-divisional officers (SDOs) in the districts and before the police in Calcutta.

A declaration of compliance too must be produced in the form of a court affidavit, vetted by the director-general of police, by November 17.

The interim order came on a petition challenging the state government’s decision to hand out the Rs 50,000 grant to puja organisers.

Some government lawyers said the court order was an embarrassment for the state authorities, who are yet to decide whether to appeal before the Supreme Court.

The bench, which included Justice Arijit Banerjee, asked the police to print handbills and leaflets with details of the court order on the utilisation norms and distribute them among the puja organisers by October 22.

It said the final verdict would ensure the subject of the grant did not come up before the court year after year.

“The larger questions, including the very propriety of making such a grant, will be considered once and for all immediately after the Puja vacation (which ends of November 17) so that the repetitive exercise is not undertaken every September or October,” the court said.

A law department source said: “Last year, too, our government’s decision to give a grant to Puja committees was challenged before the high court. After the high court refused a stay, the petitioner had approached the Supreme Court. That appeal is still pending.”

Friday’s order said: “The state’s affidavit in opposition to the petition be filed within a week after the Puja vacation; reply thereto, if any, may be filed within a week thereafter.”

The court will next hear the case two weeks after the Puja vacation.

Senior lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who had appeared for the petitioner, said: “It’s impossible for a puja committee to spend money to strengthen the bonding between the public and the police. It’s also impossible now for the committees to spend a farthing from the dole for Puja purposes. So, a purpose of the petition has been served. We welcome the order.”

Another high court lawyer said: “Since an appeal is pending before the Supreme Court on a similar issue, a high court division bench cannot strike down the grant and ask the clubs to refund the money to the state government. So it has framed guidelines for the clubs to restrain them from spending the money on Puja-related activities.”