Bhubaneswar, Sept. 11: Lawyers continued their boycott against the government's decision to abolish the Odisha Administrative Tribunal for the second day today.

The BJP also criticised the government decision to abolish the tribunal, which was earlier known as the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT).

Senior BJP leader and former law minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said the decision to abolish the tribunal was an unfortunate one.

"OAT has played a successful role in delivering justice to litigants since its inception. But, the state government has decided to abolish the tribunal only to avoid litigations against bureaucrats, who are facing contempt of court cases for not carrying out the directives of the tribunal on time," alleged the senior leader.

Harichandan added that the decision would not only upset the lawyers' community but also the state government employees.

"On the basis of work load, the tribunal needs at least 10 members, including a chairman. However, there are only eight posts including that of the chairman, which has been lying vacant for more than a year. Out of the eight sanctioned posts, only two judicial and two administrative members are looking into the affairs of the tribunal. The state government, instead of appointing judges, decided to abolish the OAT. This is an unfortunate decision," said Harichandan.

The tribunal was set up in 1986 to provide legal relief to state government employees regarding their service matters. Since then, a total 2,66,911 cases have been filed with the tribunal. Of these, 2,08,677 cases have been disposed off.

The tribunal has its principal bench in Bhubaneswar, a regular bench at Rajaswa Bhavan in Cuttack and circuit benches in Berhampur and Sambalpur.

The OAT Bar Association, Cuttack, has decided to continue with their cease work agitation till Monday.

"Future course of action will be decided on Monday at our executive body meeting," said a member of the OAT Bar Association.

With the decision to abolish the tribunal, the state government employees will now have to move the Orissa High Court for service grievances matters. Besides, the pending cases would also be shifted to the high court.

Government employees have expressed their dissatisfaction over the decision.

"Earlier, we used to move the high court if we lost the case in the tribunal. However, now, we will be forced to go to the Supreme Court if we want to challenge a judgment of Orissa High Court . This will be an expensive affair. Disposal of cases in the high court will also take time as it is already burdened with a huge number of pending cases," said a state government employee.