Cuttack, Dec. 20: Lawyers practising in the Cuttack bench of the State Administrative Tribunal have given an ultimatum to chief minister Naveen Patnaik regarding the government's decision to abolish it.

"We will wait till January 14. We hope the chief minister will take a decision over our demand to revoke the decision by then. We will be forced to resume our agitation if there is still no response to our demand," said Ulash Chandra Mohanty, president of the tribunal's bar association, Cuttack.

"We will organise street plays by transgenders to draw attention to our demand. We will not allow the chief minister to attend any function of lawyers in Cuttack," Mohanty said.

The move to resume agitation followed the chief minister's recent statement in the Assembly that there was no necessity to withdraw the state government's decision to abolish the State Administrative Tribunal.

The association had boycotted tribunal proceedings on December 13 to protest against Naveen's statement in the Assembly.

Subsequently, it passed a resolution to adopt a wait and watch policy till January 20 before reviving their agitation.

The State Administrative Tribunal has its principal bench in Bhubaneswar, a regular bench in Cuttack and two circuit benches in Sambalpur and Berhampur.

"It is unfortunate that the chief minister has now given such a statement in the Assembly," said Biraja Prasad Satpathy, secretary of the State Administrative Tribunal's bar association in Cuttack.

Replying to a question from MLA Dilip Ray of the BJP as to whether the state government would withdraw its decision regarding the State Administrative Tribunal, Naveen had recently stated in the Assembly that the necessity to do it was yet to be felt.