Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said two Stormont departments were right to launch legal action against the police over an interface bonfire.
The controversial pyre at Adam St has been built off Duncairn Gardens, close to the interface between New Lodge and Tiger's Bay in north Belfast.
It was due to be set alight last night.
The challenge by the Department for Infrastructure, headed by the SDLP's Nichola Mallon and Department for Communities, run by Sinn Féin's Deirdre Hargey, was dismissed on Friday night after a judge refused an earlier, similar case taken by a New Lodge resident to direct PSNI officers to intervene at the Tiger's Bay site.
Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill yesterday said the decision to challenged the PSNI was "absolutely the right thing to do".
"Bonfires are illegal, they are bad for the environment and they were trespassing on government-owned land so the ministers have a duty to uphold the law," she said.
"Everybody is entitled to celebrate their culture, but this bonfire is on an interface area, that draws all the heightened tension.
"I met with the residents and they feel under siege, their homes have been attacked and that is not acceptable in this day and age.
"Putting a bonfire on an interface area does beg the question is it there only to antagonise?"
She also responded to suggestions that the UDA had brought weapons into the area.
"Why is it acceptable to anyone in this day and age that their threat is more dominant than the rights of the citizens that are being attacked in these areas?" she told the BBC.
Ms Mallon said she was disappointed by the court outcome.
"I'm disappointed for the New Lodge and Duncairn residents who have been attacked, abused and suffered disruption for the last number of months as this bonfire has been constructed," she said.
However, Police Federation chairman Mark Lindsay welcomed the court decision.
He added that the controversy should have been dealt with earlier.
"I am very disappointed that two of the departments who should have had this issue sorted a year ago hadn't that done and, once again, we're trying to throw police into a crisis they hadn't sort out," he told the BBC.
"It's really good news for our officers that they are not being thrown into the middle of what really is a horrendous situation for them."
He added that in situations where tensions are high, there was always "that spectre of a ballistic threat".
Meanwhile, boxing star Carl Frampton has weighed into the Adam St bonfire row.
Originally from Tigers Bay, the three-weight world champion revealed on Twitter he has helped build previous pyres at the site.
“Reading articles in the media you’d be forgiven to think that the Tigers Bay bonfire was only erected in Adam Street, for the first time, in 2021," he wrote.
“As a young boy, I enjoyed collecting, helping to build and watch the bonfire being lit on that exact spot."
He said attacks attacks in the area need to end.
“What should be, and has rightly been condemned, is attacks on neighbouring communities."
“They are wrong and need to stop. But what should be seen as a positive move forward is the fact that flags, effigies, posters etc, have not been used.
“There isn’t a place for the burning of these things in today’s society. Whether you agree with it or not, the 11th July bonfires play a big part in a lot of people’s cultures and traditions here."
