In what seems to be a setback for the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court on Monday directed all state-sponsored advertisements against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be removed from public platforms.

The court, in an interim direction, asked the Bengal government to suspend all such advertisements till the next plea is heard on January 9.

Commenting on the Calcutta High Court's order, Union Minister Babul Supriyo tweeted, "If only Mamata Banerjee had taken advice from the few educated MPs and MLAs she has in her party about she (A CM) not having any authority, as per our constitution, to block an ACT that's in the central List and anyone other than Didi would know that citizenship is Centre's prerogative."

While Mamata Banerjee has been critical of the Centre's amended Citizenship Act and NRC, the state governor Jagdeep Dhankar had accused the West Bengal chief minister of "wasting public money" on the anti-CAA and anti-NRC campaign.

Dhankar had even demanded immediate withdrawal of the advertisements saying that they were unconstitutional.

The direction came after six pleas were filed against state government advertisements, which allegedly claimed that CAA and NRC will not be implemented in the state.

Mamata Banerjee has already spearheaded several rallies in the state against the act, which aims to give citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims from three neighbouring countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Banerjee had even called for a UN-monitored referendum on NRC and CAA a few days ago following country-wide student agitation against the act. She was criticised by many ministers of the Centre who condemned her statement and asked her to apologise.

In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attacked her on Sunday during his rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan.

"Mamata didi reached the UN (United Nations) from Kolkata. A few years ago, she used to plead in Parliament to stop Bangladeshi infiltrators and help the persecuted refugees from there," PM Modi said.