Chandigarh, April 19: Twenty-one of the 29 judges of Punjab and Haryana High Court went on mass leave today, bringing work to a standstill.

High court sources said the judges’ decision was prompted by “differences” with Chief Justice Benod Kumar Roy regarding the acceptance of ex-officio membership of a controversial private club by two judges.

The club has been built by allegedly violating rules and a hillock is believed to have been flattened to make way for it. A case against the club is pending in the high court.

High court officials said the chief justice’s decision to allocate more administrative work to the judges also prompted the decision. Chief Justice Roy was, however, heard stating in court that the judges had not mentioned the reason for going on leave in their applications.

The judges who were listed in the duty roster but went on leave were Justices G.S. Singhvi, V.K. Bali, H.S. Bedi, Swatantar Kumar, J.S. Khehar, V.M. Jain, Narinder Kumar Sud, Jagjit Singh Narang, Nirmal Singh, K.S. Garewal, Adarsh Kumar Goel, M.M. Kumar, Jasbir Singh, S.K. Mittal, Hemant Gupta, S.S. Saron, Kiran Anand Lall, S.S. Grewal, Rajiv Bhalla, Ajay Kumar Mittal and Surya Kant. While some sought leave for a day, others asked for leave till April 24.

Joint registrar (judicial) M.M.S. Bedi, Raj Kumar Sahore, private secretary to the chief justice, or the judges who abstained from work today were not available for comment.

Apart from the chief justice, only Justice Amar Dutt attended court today.

While Justice S.S. Nijjar proceeded on leave a week ago and is reportedly abroad, Justices Ashutosh Mohanta, Vinay Mittal and Virender Singh went on leave on Saturday, sources said.

The controversy began after the chief justice issued a letter to Justices Vinay Mittal and Virender Singh for becoming club members. This prompted a written communication from the 21 judges, stating that his contentions were “malafide and out of bias”.

High court sources said that in his reply, the chief justice reportedly said the charges levelled against him were baseless. He allegedly told the judges to “cultivate humility” and that it was within his right to question the two judges. He also accused the concerned judges of being “double-faced”.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association today sought the intervention of the Chief Justice of India into the matter.