The hunt for another Jantar Mantar is over.

Patna High Court on Wednesday issued a directive to shift the designated place of protest from R-Block to the Gardanibagh area.

The high court directed the Patna district administration to shift the site to Sanjay Gandhi Stadium, Gardanibagh, for two months after which it had directed the state to either make Kargil Chowk (on the north-eastern side of Gandhi Maidan) or a dumping yard at Gardanibagh the permanent site for staging protests.

Jantar Mantar in New Delhi is a designated site for protesters up to 5,000 in number. If the number increases, Delhi police assign Ramlila Maidan to the protesters.

The district administration on Wednesday, however, decided to use Kargil Chowk with immediate effect (from Thursday) for daylong demonstrations and Sanjay Gandhi Stadium would be used for those lingering for more than a day.

The petitioner, Shambhu Sharan Singh, who is also a Patna High Court advocate, alleged in his petition that due to the closure of R-Block roundabout, as protesters sat on dharnathere, major parts of the city suffered from traffic snarls. The petitioner had pleaded that it was impossible to even walk when the R-Block gates used to be closed by the administration due to dharna.

Principal additional advocate-general Lalit Kishore said: "The court ordered to remove the dharna site from R-Block to Gardanibagh."

While hearing a public interest litigation on Monday a division bench comprising Chief Justice L. Narasimha Reddy and Justice Anjana Mishra directed the state government to suggest alternative sites by Wednesday for staging dharna or demonstration.

Patna district magistrate Abhay Kumar Singh, who was present in the court on Wednesday, proposed Gait Public Library ground in Gardanibagh as the point of assembly for protesters and demonstrators which the court rejected as Chief Justice Reddy said: "We do not want any nuisance or disturbance near the library. This will bring another public interest litigation."

Following, the high court's Monday order, the Patna district administration had on Tuesday identified an alternate site in Gardanibagh and sent the proposal for approval to the urban development and housing department. A team comprising Abhay and Patna senior superintendent of police Vikas Vaibhav also inspected the Gardanibagh area.

The court, however, agreed on the protest site to be shifted to Sanjay Gandhi Stadium, which the urban development department has suggested in its affidavit submitted on Wednesday. A similar affidavit was filed by the district magistrate also on Wednesday.

The court said: "If any person or any party, in violation of the order, is found to organise protest at any part of the city other than the proposed site, it will be construed as contempt of court and strict action would be taken against them."

The court ruled that the district administration could build an iron gate near the stadium to regulate the traffic and facilitate the protests.

Following district magistrate Abhay's submission to the court on Wednesday that most of the processions start from the Gandhi Maidan area and then pass through the city thoroughfares, the court said why not make the sprawling ground as the protest site.

The matter would again come up for hearing after two months.