Kolkata, Jan 24 (IANS): A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Friday, rejected the appeal from the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) for allotment of a stall at the forthcoming Kolkata International Book Fair this year which will be organised by the Publishers & Booksellers Guild.

Earlier, the same single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha had also rejected the plea from human rights’ body Association for Protection of Democratic Right (APDR) to have a stall at this annual event.

Both the organisations approached the Calcutta High Court after their applications for allotment of stalls at the book fair this year were rejected by the Guild Authorities.

While rejecting the plea from VHP, Justice Sinha observed that the procedure of filing the petition against the guild authorities was not followed in this case.

The single-judge bench also raised questions about the admissibility of the petition against the Publishers & Booksellers Guild, which is a private entity.

In the case of the rejection of a similar petition of APDR earlier this month, Justice Sinha also observed that since the book fair is a private affair and not a state-run affair, the validity of the petition by APDR does not stand and hence the petition was dismissed. Kolkata International Book Fair this year has been scheduled from January 28 to February 9.

With Germany being the focal theme-country for the event this time, Publishers & Booksellers Guild, the organiser of the Kolkata Book Fair, has got confirmation from other countries like the UK, the US, France, Italy, Spain, Spain, Peru, Argentina and Colombia among others, but not from any publisher from Bangladesh.

It has been learned that Germany has been chosen as the theme-country as the Kolkata Book Fair started in 1976 and was inspired by the world’s first book fair, which was organised at Frankfurt in Germany in 1949.

This time, there will be 1,050 book stalls.

Like every year, the event will be inaugurated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.