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3. The respondent-authorities have raised several objections which according to the petitioners are flimsy pretexts to refuse permission to the petitioners.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner relies on Article 14 of the Constitution of India. It is argued that the petitioners have equal right as others to hold a Durga Puja Festival in the said Mela Ground. It is submitted that in the previous year as well, when the petitioners had moved court against refusal to hold Durga Puja Festival in a bus-

16. As opposed to such occasion, the time when the petitioners intend to hold the Durga Puja would coincide with Durga Puja Festivals being held all over the State. In fact, several other organizers have been given the permission to hold Durga Puja in close vicinity of the Mela Ground itself. The authorities, it is submitted, are within their jurisdiction to consider the pros and cons of giving such permissions and nobody has a right to claim entitlement to hold Puja, thereby putting public order at peril.

30. That apart, the argument of the respondent-Authorities regarding the petitioners not having any choice to hold worship or organize religious offerings wherever they wish, falls flat, in view of the implicit character of the Durga Puja Festival held in the State of West Bengal. As is public knowledge, the Durga Puja Festival is not confined merely to the worship or religious offerings component of the incarnation of feminine power but also a melting pot of different cultures. People from all over the state, the country and even from abroad, come to West Bengal purely for the purpose of observing the fanfare and the cultural milieu in the state during Durga Puja Festivals. Hence, there is as much an element of ceremony, cultural programmes, festival and fanfare involved as religious worship. In such sense, the Durga Puja Festival is much more secular in nature than a pure religious performance of a particular community and cannot, thus, be narrowed down to being a mere „religious offering‟ of a particular community.

33. Thus, the premise of the argument of the respondents that the ground cannot be used for a Durga Puja Festival is erroneous. No intelligible or reasonable differentia has been made out by the respondent- Authorities between a Durga Puja Festival and ordinary fairs or other festivals designated to be held on the Mela Ground. Both entail huge footfall and gathering of crowds including parking of vehicles of the people who come to visit.