Cuttack: The indefinite hunger strike by lawyers of Orissa High Court seeking appointment of judges will continue till March 5.

The hunger strike will continue till Monday and on the same day the High Court Bar Association will meet to decide its future course of action.

High court advocates are on strike since February 12. To intensify their agitation they launched an indefinite relay hunger strike and stopped filing of cases from February 20.

Consequently, court functioning has been paralysed for 11 working days and as the strike will continue till March 5 another three working days will be lost.

High Court Bar Association secretary Satyabrata Mohanty said on Monday that they would continue with the relay hunger strike as there had been no positive outcome since their meeting with two senior-most judges in the absence of the Chief Justice last week.

"We expected the matter to be taken up by the two judges after the return of the Chief Justice on Monday. But that did not happen as the Chief Justice was not present on Monday," Mohanty said.

"In fact, we have not been able to present our grievances before the Chief Justice since we started boycotting court proceedings on February 12," Mohanty said.

No names have been recommended to the Supreme Court collegium for the post of judges since Justice Vineet Saran assumed office as Chief Justice on February 2, 2016. The last judge to be appointed in the high court was Justice K.R. Mohapatra. He was appointed on April 17, 2015.

The lawyers demanded filling up of 11 vacancies immediately so that the court starts functioning with 27 judges sanctioned for the high court.

The bar association had send memoranda to the Chief Justice of India, President, Prime Minister and Union law minister on February 22 demanding filling up of vacant posts of judges.

"A delegation of the association will shortly go to Delhi to meet them," Mohanty said.