A vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed the Joint Platform of Doctors (JPD) to continue their sit-in at Esplanade till December 31 after the doctors’ body petitioned the court seeking an extension of the December 26 deadline to end the protest.

The vacation bench of Justice Prasenjit Biswas stuck to the maximum limit of 100 people for the protest, a limit set by a division bench of the high court earlier. It also prohibited the protesters from delivering instigating speeches.

Justice Biswas heard the two sides in the afternoon but did not pass an order. A written order was uploaded on the high court’s website late on Thursday.

It said: “...permission is given to the writ petitioner to continue their sit in demonstration from 27th December, 2024 to 31st December, 2024.”

The JPD is the writ petitioner.

“The petitioners and their associates hold a peaceful demonstration with not more than 100 supporters as directed by the Division Bench in MAT 2345 of 2024 on the same stage where the sit in demonstration was going on,” it said.

“...the participants are further directed not to deliver any instigating speech so that the law and order situationgoes out of the hands of the administration.”

Two other benches of the Calcutta High Court had earlier allowed the JPD to continue the sit-in at the Metro Channel till December 26.

Before petitioning the court, the JPD wrote to Kolkata Police on Monday expressing its wish to extend the sit-in at Metro Channel beyond Thursday. Kolkata Police wrote back to the JPD on Tuesday denying permission.

“This is our victory. The police are denying us permission every time, but the court is giving us permission,” said Utpal Bandyopadhyay, a JPD member.

“We need some clarifications on the order. In one place it states it will be round-the-clock protest and in another, it fixes a duration. We will seek clarification,” he said.

On Thursday, three delegations of the JPD visited two CBI offices and the state secretariat Nabanna.

“The two separate cases related to RG Kar are being probed by separate CBI teams in Nizam Palace and the Salt Lake CGO Complex, which is why we went to both CBI offices,” said Bandyopadhyay.

“The CBI officers who met us at Nizam Palace told the JPD team that they have already submitted a chargesheet against Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, in the financial irregularity case. They told us to have faith in them,” said a member of the JPD.

Though the CBI has submitted the chargesheet at a Sealdah court, the court is yet to take cognizance of it as a no-objection required from the state government has not been issued yet.

The third JPD team went to meet chief secretary Manoj Pant. “The chief secretary did not meet us,” said a JPD member.