Association For Protection Of Democratic Rights Approaches High Court Challenging Denial To Participate In Kolkata Book Fair

The Association For Protection Of Democratic Rights has approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the denial of permission to it for participating in the 2025 Kolkata Book Fair by the organisers.

The plea will be heard by Justice Amrita Sinha.

The petitioners have stated that they have consistently exhibited at the International Kolkata Book Fair. Accordingly, they submitted an application to Publishers 8 Booksellers Guild, furnishing the requested particulars, to obtain a stall for displaying their publications at the 48th International Kolkata Book Fair 2025.

It was stated that after repeated attempts to clarify its participation status through in-person visits to the Publishers & Booksellers office and numerous phone calls, the petitioner was verbally informed by the President and Secretary that the International Kolkata Book Fair does not accommodate organizations, and its application was rejected.

Thus the petitioner stated that respondent No. 1, the entity responsible for organizing the Annual International Kolkata Book Fair, via informal communication on 03.01.2025, erroneously and arbitrarily rejected the writ petitioner's application dated 04.10.2024 for participating by setting up a book stall of approximately 100 square feet, despite the petitioner being a regular participant of the same.

Aggrieved by this, the petitioner filed the present writ petition.