Court caps number of RG Kar protesters at Esplanade
Times of India | 25 December 2024
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the Joint Platform of Doctors, who are agitating near Dorina crossing, to reduce the number of participants to 100 from the 200-250 allowed by a single bench on Dec 20. A division bench of justices Harish Tandon and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya told them to submit their decision regarding the state's proposal to suspend the dharna on Dec 25 and instead hold it on Dec 27.
Counsel for the agitating doctors, Shamim Ahmed, su-bmitted to the bench that there was no scope for reconsidering the dharna schedule.
The state on Monday appealed against the direction of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, which allowed the protesters to hold a demonstration from Dec 17 to Dec 26. Senior counsel for the state, Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, drew the attention of the bench to a new phenomenon where petitioners were moving the high court days ahead of the programme and obtaining an order, leaving the state with no option but to comply.
The senior counsel pointed out the protesters chose Durga Puja to agitate and this time it was Christmas. The senior state counsel cited several SC judgments in which the judiciary was advised to review the decision-making process and not the administrative decision. "A court should leave it to the discretion of the administration to decide on the length and breadth of the dharna mancha," Bandyopadhyay said. Senior counsel for the petitioners, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, submitted that there was no question of obstruction by the agitating doctors. "It is a peaceful ongoing protest, and I put it on record that there is no obstruction to traffic. Hare Street OC may express his concern but the commissioner of police is not annoyed. The protest is going on within the space earmarked by the guard rails all around," Bhattacharya said.
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