Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the state government to clarify and specify before it by Monday which police station areas have been brought under the purview of Section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (erstwhile Section144 CrPC) through a notification issued by Kolkata police commissioner Manoj Verma on Wednesday.

Responding to two separate petitions filed by frontal organisations of the CPM and a doctors’ body, Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj said either the police chief will have to withdraw his notification or cancel permissions for holding Durga Pujas in specified areas where Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) has been clamped.

The petitioners had moved the court on Thursday challenging the legality of the CP’s notification, which they said was a ploy to stifle voices of dissent against the state government on the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital incident, where a doctor was raped and murdered on August 9.

The incident has led to protests of unprecedented scale involving various sections of society and junior doctors.

The Calcutta police chief had issued the notification banning the assembly of more than five people, carrying lathis, under the jurisdiction of a few police stations in the city from September 25 to November 23.

On behalf of the CPM’s frontal organisations senior counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya challenged the validity of the notification in Esplanade, where political parties generally hold rallies. It was also brought under the purview of Section 163 BNSS.

Bhattacharyya had moved the petition on Thursday and the case was fixed for hearing on Friday. In a separate petition, the Junior Doctors’ Forum cited the CP’s notification alleging that the police had denied them permission to hold a proposed rally from College Square to Rabindra Sadan.

A few other similar petitions also came up for hearing together before Justice Bharadwaj on Friday. When asked by the judge, state counsel Amitesh Banerjee claimed that the petitioners were misinterpreting the notification.

“Some parts of some of the specific police station areas have been brought under the notification. Say, a 60mt road between KC Das and Victoria House has been brought under the temporary rule,” Banerjee said.