After meeting the Chief Justice on Tuesday, the striking lawyers of Orissa High Court on Wednesday decided to continue their ongoing boycott of courts till Monday.
Sensing the mood of most of the members of the Association to call off the strike and resume the work as the contentious issue of setting up of HC benches is now at the appropriate forum, some members of the bar at the general body meeting here were of the opinion to postpone the decision on the strike as a number of lawyers are absent.
“Since a number of our members are now out of the headquarters and at their native places due to cyclone and flood which ravaged the State recently, it was decided to convene another general body meting on November 4 to decide the fate of the ongoing strike,” said general secretary of the Bar Association Janmejaya Katakia adding that their strike will continue till that day.
The lawyers of Orissa High Court are boycotting the court activities since September 26 in protest against the State government’s confusing stand on the proposed benches of the High Court. The HC lawyers are also highly critical about the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s September 28 letter to the Union law minister Kapil Sibal asking the latter to take appropriate steps to set up permanent benches of the High Court anywhere in the southern and western regions of the State.
Mr. Sibal on the other hand has termed the Chief Minister’s recommendation as “incomplete” as it was not endorsed by the State Chief Justice and accordingly, the Union Law Minister has referred the recommendation to the Orissa Chief Justice seeking his views on the matter.
