The high court on Thursday gave a verbal nod to a plea by the Joint Platform of Doctors (JPD) for a sit-in protest on the RG Kar issue on “Chowringhee Road” till December 26.

Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who passed the verbal order, asked the lawyers representing the JPD and the state to discuss the size of the area to be cordoned off for the protest.

A formal order will be issued on Friday, Justice Ghosh said in the courtroom.

Samim Ahmed, a lawyer representing the JPD, told The Telegraph on Thursday evening that the court granted permission for the sit-in in the Metro channel. “Justice Ghosh said the permission is being given for the road opposite Metro cinema, which means the Metro channel,” said Ahmed.

The JPD, an umbrella group of several senior doctors’ organisations, petitioned the court for consent to hold the sit-in in the Metro channel after police denied them permission for a sit-in at the Dorina crossing in Esplanade citing possible traffic congestion during the Christmas-New Year season.

JPD members said they will set up a dais in the Metro channel for the sit-in.

During Thursday’s hearing, Justice Ghosh told the counsel for the JPD to restrict the assembly to a certain number after the state counsel, Amitesh Banerjee, expressed the fear that the sit-in would disrupt traffic.

The judge then asked the lawyers for both sides to come back with a mutually agreed upon area to be cordoned off for the protest and other terms.

“Chowringee is allowed. Now come to the terms… I will pass an order on Friday,” Justice Ghosh told the counsel for both sides.

“Limit the numbers (of people). Or it won’t be possible on that road,” Justice Ghosh told Ahmed. “Do your preparations. Do not do it disproportionately.”

“The high court has verbally allowed us to go ahead with the sit-in demonstration,” Ahmed said on Thursday evening.

The sit-in site will be the same where junior doctors had sat on a hunger strike to press for a charter of 10 demands, triggered by the rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, earlier this year, the lawyer said.

While allowing the JPD’s plea, the judge said: “There is a difference in (in the impact of a protest) the Esplanade area during Durga Puja and Christmas. It is crowded during this time. Puja is not crowded in this area.”

The hunger strike in the Metro channel continued during the Puja.

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.

The police had in its email to the JPD on Monday said: “There is every possibility of traffic congestion and inconvenience to general public at large because of the said programme.”

The JPD wants to hold the sit-in to press for two demands. One of the demands is that the CBI submit a supplementary chargesheet against former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh and former Tala police station officer-in-charge Abhijit Mandal in connection with the rape and murder.

The other demand is that the state government allow the prosecution of Ghosh and former RG Kar house staff Ashis Pandey in a case related to alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar.

“This (the court order) is a victory for us,” said Tamonas Chaudhuri, a member of the JPD. “We will start the demonstration from Friday.”