Cuttack, July 29: Orissa High Court lawyers today left litigants high and dry as they abstained from work demanding "smart city" status.

High Court Bar Association secretary B.K. Ragada said: "We abstained from court work today to protest against exclusion of Cuttack from the smart city project of the Union government with the recommendation of the state and its committee."

"The High Court Bar Association, along with all bar associations of Cuttack, submitted a memorandum, addressed to the President and Prime Minister, to the revenue divisional commissioner (central) and Cuttack collector," Ragada said.

The memorandum described the decision to exclude Cuttack as "unfortunate" and an "outcome of bureaucratic and political manoeuvre".

High Court Bar Association president Ashok Kumar Mohapatra said: "We urged upon the government to recall the decision forthwith and include Cuttack in the smart city project within three days from today."

"If the memorandum yields no result, the associations will draw people from all walks of life to launch a public agitation from August 4 for declaration of Cuttack as a smart city," Mohapatra said.

Among hundreds of cases, the court could not proceed with the dispute over validity of seat hike in the government institutes without following the All India Council of Technical Education's regulation.

The Odisha Private Engineering College Association had filed the petition. In an interim order, the court had directed the Biju Patnaik University of Technology and the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination Committee - 2015 to take steps to ensure that candidates taking part in counselling were made aware that seat hike in government colleges was under legal dispute and admissions to those seats would be subject to final outcome of the case.

While issuing the order on July 21, the high court had refused to issue an interim stay on the admissions to the enhanced seats and fixed today for final hearing.

Among other cases, the high court also could not proceed with the monitoring of the implementation of recommendations made by an inquiry committee on the emergency services provided in the casualty department of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

Emergency services at the hospital had been under scrutiny as part of adjudication on a public interest litigation on alleged inadequacies in treatment of patients at the casualty department.

The state health department was to file a detailed affidavit on the implementation of the suggestions of the committee.

More than 900 cases listed before various benches of the court could not be taken up for hearing today.

Over 190 bail pleas, including the anticipatory bail applications, also faced the same fate.

The court also could not attend to several cases scheduled for hearing in the weekly list.