High Court bars Durga Puja funds for Bengal clubs without utilisation certificates

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The Calcutta High Court ruled that Durga Puja grants cannot be disbursed to clubs failing to file last year's utilisation certificates and directed all recipients to submit this year's accounts within a month.

Durga Puja celebrations in Nadia district in West Bengal. (File picture: PTI)

Tapas Sengupta

Kolkata,UPDATED: Aug 27, 2025 12:58 IST

The Calcutta High Court has barred the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government from releasing Durga Puja grants to clubs that failed to submit utilisation certificates for last year's funds. The court further directed that all clubs receiving money this year must hand in their utilisation details to the Director General of State Police and the Commissioner of Kolkata Police within one month of Bijoya Dashami.

The matter will be taken up again after the Durga Puja recess.

During the hearing, Advocate General Kishore Dutta told the court that out of 41,795 clubs that received funds last year, only three under the Siliguri Commissionerate had not filed their reports.

Justice Sujay Paul, however, made it clear saying, "We don't want to get into the data. Our point is, don't give money to those who have not submitted the utilisation certificates".

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya reminded the bench that a similar order had been issued earlier. Justice Paul also referred to Justice Prakash Srivastava's September 13, 2022 ruling, which had laid down that grants must be restricted to clubs complying with the deadline for submitting utilisation certificates.

- Ends

Published By:

Sahil Sinha

Published On:

Aug 27, 2025

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