Calcutta High Court on Friday allowed the Joint Platform of Doctors to hold a sit-in demonstration at Metro Channel, opposite the Metro Cinema shopping plaza at Esplanade, on the incident of the brutal rape and murder of a young woman doctor at the R G Kar Medical College Hospital, until 26 December.
While issuing the formal order today, the court imposed several conditions on the JPD for organising its protest programme in the heart of the city. On Thursday, the court had given verbal clearance to the group for the event. Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who passed the formal order today, said: “Yesterday, I had given verbal permission for the programme. The state government should not deny permission for the programme at a time when the doctors are mentally prepared to organise the protest show.” Justice Ghosh directed the administration to erect a guardrail of seven feet height so that no outsiders can enter the dais. The court has also given several conditions to the effect that –
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�the dais for the sit-in protest would be made 50 feet away from Dorina Crossing;
�the stage should be a maximum of 40 feet long and 23 feet wide;
�a maximum of 200-250 people can be allowed on the dais;
�the organizers would have to discuss with the police administration if the gathering of people increases in number;
�the programme would be allowed until 26 December;
�no derogatory statements can be made against anybody from the dais; and
�that no activities that could disturb the festive mood would be entertained. Yesterday, Justice Ghosh had asked the lawyers representing the JPD and the state to discuss the size of the area to be cordoned off for the protest.
The JPD, an umbrella platform of several senior doctors’ organisations, had moved the court seeking consent to hold the sit-in at Metro Channel after police denied them permission for a sit-in at Dorina Crossing in Esplanade, citing possible traffic congestion during the Christmas-New Year season. 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 fear that the sit-in would disrupt traffic.
The sit-in site is the same where junior doctors mainly had sat on a hunger strike to press for a charter of 10 demands, triggered by the R G Kar Medical College Hospital incident on 9 August. 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 police on Sunday seeking permission to set up a dais at the intersection for the sit-in from 17 to 26 December. The police had in its email to the JPD on Monday said: “There is every possibility of traffic congestion and inconvenience to the general public at large because of the said programme.”
Soon after getting the HC order, JPD members assembled at the protest site at Metro Channel this afternoon to erect the dais there. Senior police officials also visited the spot and measured its length and width as per the HC directives.
The JPD will hold the sit-in from this afternoon to press for two demandsthat the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the incident submits a supplementary chargesheet against former R G Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh and former Tala police station officer-in-charge Abhijit Mandal in connection with the rape and murder, and that the state government allows the prosecution of Dr Ghosh and former R G Kar house staff Ashis Pandey in a case related to alleged financial irregularities at R G Kar. “This (the court order) is a victory for us,” said a senior member of the JPD. “We will start the demonstration from this afternoon.”
