Around 80,000 lawyers abstained from work in courts across the state on Wednesday to protest against the Centre’s alleged attempt to restrict the powers of Bar Council of India.

The Bar Council of India has called a nationwide strike of lawyers, asking them to abstain from the court work on Wednesday and Thursday to protest against proposed central bills, like higher education and research bill, 2011, legal practitioners’ bill and others.

Sources said these bills aim to curb the power of the Bar Council of India in regulating legal education and in taking disciplinary action against lawyers.

Lawyers associated with Bihar State Bar Council and 11 other bar associations, including three at Patna High Court, abstained from work on Wednesday. The high court judges held court in time but had to rise soon as no proceedings could be undertaken because of the absence of lawyers.

Bihar State Bar Council chairperson Baleshwar Prasad Sharma told The Telegraph: “There was cent per cent response to the strike call across the state. The protest was peaceful. We did not obstruct traffic or cause inconvenience to the people.”

BJP’s legal cell also burnt an effigy of Union human resource minister Kapil Sibal.