Can we remove the Patch Files/Directories exists in patchtop that already applied on Oracle EBS R12.2?

In EBS R12.2 there is a patchtop($NE_BASE/EBSapps/patch)  where we keep the patches and apply using adop.

Now the question is can we remove these patch directories from patchtop location?

So the answer is we cannot delete these patch directories until the patch is synchronized to the other file system during the next prepare phase.

The directories where you extracted the patches applied in a given patching cycle must be retained, in the same location and with the same contents, until the next prepare phase completes. 

This is also a requirement for patches applied in a hotpatch session. 

At prepare, one can safely remove the patch.

If the plan is to do an FS_CLONE to SYNC the file systems, then the patches can be deleted after doing FS_CLONE