The high court on Friday imposed multiple restrictions on the sit-in demonstration by the Joint Platform of Doctors (JPD) at Esplanade, including those related to the strength of the assembly, size of the zone to be cordoned off and “inciting speech” that could impact law and order.

Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who was hearing the platform’s plea to allow them to organise the sit-in, told the JPD’s counsel that they have to ensure that no more than 250 people are part of the sit-in at any time.

Justice Ghosh ticked off the Kolkata Police’s counsel for “double standards” in allowing some organisations to hold demonstrations in the Metro channel and denying permission to others.

The state should then declare the zone as one where protests are “prohibited”, Justice Ghosh said.

The JPD can continue the sit-in protests till December 26 and the dais will be built 50m from the Dorina crossing (intersection of SN Banerjee Road and JL Nehru Road), the judge said.

On Thursday, Justice Ghosh had given a verbal nod to the JPD for a sit-in demonstration in the Metro channel. He said he would pass a formal order on Friday morning after the two sides, Kolkata Police and the JPD, came back to the court with mutually agreed terms like the size of the area to be cordoned off.

That was not to be. When the matter came up for hearing on Friday, the disagreements between the two sides on issues like the size and location of the cordoned-off area were still persisting.

After the arguments in the courtroom continued for some time, Justice Ghosh again asked the two sides to come back after more discussions and agreeing on some
terms.

Justice Ghosh passed the orders when the matter again came up for hearing.

“The stage should not exceed 40ft in length. From the back of the stage to the guardrail (placed by police on Chowringee Road) should not exceed 23ft,” he dictated in the
courtroom.

“The organisers are directed to keep its members between 200 and 250 at a time. If there is a request from the police to reduce crowd at any time of the day, when there could be excess congestion, both sides should try to arrive at a consensus,” he said.

“The organisers will not give any inciting speech so that law and order goes out of hand. Since the organisers are themselves doctors, they would take into account any hardship to common people,” Justice Ghosh said in the courtroom.

During the arguments, when the police’s counsel, Amitesh Banerjee, was objecting to the demands by the JPD’s counsel, Justice Ghosh said he had himself seen protests being allowed on the stretch where the doctors wanted to hold the sit-in.

As the two sides were having disagreements, Justice Ghosh told Banerjee: “I have seen with my own eyes certain organisations have conducted programmes there. How do you manage that?”

“Either come up with a notification that these are prohibited areas. People are coming to the high court because you did not grant permission. The administration could have solved this problem.

“Once there are double standards, it becomes difficult for a court of law not to agree to such proposals,” Justice Ghosh said.

Kolkata Police informed the JPD on Monday that it could not allow a sit-in at the busy Dorina crossing. The platform had written to the commissioner of the city police on Sunday seeking permission to set up a dais at the intersection for the sit-in from December 17 to 26.

“We are happy with the court’s order. We will comply with the directions.
We are not seeking votes. We are here because we need the right to protest,” said Tamonas Chaudhuri, a JPD member.