A judge has declined an application by the Auckland Council to arrest and imprison protesters still camping in Aotea Square.
About six tents remain following a court order last week requiring the occupiers to pack up and leave.
The lawyer for the Auckland Council, Ross Burns, says those individuals are in blatant contempt of the court order, and the council wants them jailed.
However the lawyer representing the protesters, Ron Mansfield, says enforcement orders can only be served to individuals subject to the previous injunction and the council can't prove who they are.
Judge Philippa Cunningham said imprisonment, as a means of enforcing the courts injunction, is a last resort.
She said the court would not tolerate the protesters continuing to defy its orders, and she said it may well be that in time the only option available to the court is an order committing those persons to prison.
The occupation began on 16 October.
