Patna, Jan. 31: Around 80,000 lawyers from across the state, including that of Patna High Court today, abstained from work to protest against the formation of evening courts, virtually paralysing work in the courts.

Supported by the Bihar State Bar Council and other lawyers’ associations in the districts and the Patna High Court, the two-day boycott by the lawyers demanded that the high court must withdraw the notification of setting up evening courts which have been functioning in the state since December 6 last year.

The courtrooms, which usually remain chock-a-block particularly on Mondays, wore a deserted look as there was neither any appearance nor any representation through lawyers in any courtroom.

The judges in the high court held their court in time but they had to rise soon as no court proceedings could be taken further because of the lawyers’ boycott. The scene on the high court premises was similar.

“It is a symbolic abstention from court work for two days to press for our (of lawyers) demand. The lawyers will work in their chambers, sit in bar associations, deal with clients and draft agreements, affidavits but will not appear or argue the case in the court throughout Bihar for two days. If our demand is not met, we will review it on February 12 and may decide to go on an indefinite strike,” Bihar State Bar Council chairman Baleshwar Prasad Sharma told The Telegraph.

An 11-member committee headed by senior advocate Rajendra Prasad Singh and constituted by the council to deal with the issue of evening courts today met Chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit who requested the bar council to withdraw the boycott as the high court was working on the alternative to evening courts, Sharma said.

He said after meeting the chief justice, the bar council called an urgent meeting of the council where 22 members, including advocate-general Ram Balak Mahto, was also present.

“The council was of unanimous view that keeping the sentiments of advocates and safety of litigants, we should continue with the two-day token strike and wait for the suspending of evening courts in Bihar,” he said.

Justice Shiva Kirti Singh, the second seniormost administrative judge in the high court, discussed the matter with the Union law minister with an alternative suggestion to the evening court, the council chairman said, before adding that the chief justice had assured them that once the proposal was accepted by the Centre, the high court would suspend the evening courts.

Justice Singh, during the meeting with lawyers, apprehended that in case the evening court was withdrawn immediately, a grant of Rs 242 crore to the state for the purpose may be withdrawn, he said.

Asked why the lawyers were opposed to the evening courts which were set up to clear the backlog of cases, the chairman said that it would not serve the purpose, as the state desperately lacks infrastructural support and good law and order, a sine qua non-condition for smooth running of the lower courts.

Apart from poor power supply, the law and order problem was another area of concern which was certainly not conducive for the smooth functioning of evening courts, where witnesses and lawyers were intimidated or killed in daytime, he said, adding that two additional public prosecutors (one each in Jehanabad and Begusarai) were murdered in daylight.

“The high court should, instead of setting up evening courts, fill up the vacancies in the lower judiciary,” Sharma said, while adding that it was an inhumane approach as it was difficult for judicial officers, litigants, lawyers and court staff to work additional hours.

Senior advocate Yogesh Chandra Verma, a member of the bar council and chairman of the co-ordination committee of all three lawyers’ associations of the high court, told The Telegraph: “They (evening courts) cannot be justified from any angle. This is neither appropriate nor tenable. We are showing solidarity with the lawyers working in the lower courts.”

However, a section of lawyers in the high court, holding a different opinion, said: “It can be understood that lower courts lawyers are refraining from work but it is beyond one’s comprehension as to why high court lawyers have been dragged into the boycott net. Non-functioning of courts anyway will lead to further piling of cases.”

According to the Supreme Court’s latest court news report in a quarterly magazine published by the apex court, posts of 323 judicial officers lay vacant in the lower courts of the state.

The total number of pending cases in lower courts stand at 15,04,233, included 12,52,091 criminal cases and 2,52,142 civil cases, the court news reported.