India, Aug. 27 -- Three out of 44,671 Durga Puja committees in West Bengal have not submitted utilisation certificates for the financial grant given by the state for the festival in previous years, the state government told the Calcutta high court on Wednesday, lawyers present at the hearing said.

"The government informed the division bench of justices Sujoy Paul and Smita Das De that 2,876 puja committees in Kolkata have submitted utilisation reports on time. However, three of the rest 41,795 committees spread across the districts didn't do it," a lawyer said, requesting anonymity.

"The court said no grant should be given to puja organisers who don't submit expense reports as per rules," the lawyer said.

After hearing a public interes...