Calcutta, July 29: For 10 minutes today, the stranglehold of the Bar Association on Calcutta High Court snapped as a group of litigants defied a boycott of a judge by lawyers and tried to argue their cases.

An elderly man managed to secure bail for his son-in-law from Justice Girish Chandra Gupta, whose court the lawyers affiliated to the Bar Association are boycotting, before the seven litigants were forced to leave the room by lawyers shouting from outside.

Subrata Sengupta, 84, argued on behalf of his son-in-law Dipak Chakrabarti, who was arrested by Uttarpara police a week ago on the charge of attempting to murder one of his relatives, and secured bail for him.

But before the other litigants could place their submissions, a group of lawyers shouted at them and drove them out of the room.

The Bar Association, the largest organisation of lawyers of the high court that has often enforced holidays at will, has been boycotting Justice Gupta since July 22, accusing him of misbehaving with a senior lawyer. Justice Gupta had allegedly raised his voice and directed advocate Milan Mukherjee to sit down when the lawyer was arguing in favour of anticipatory bail for his client.

The same day, nearly 7,500 members of the Bar Association adopted a resolution saying they would not attend Justice Gupta's court till the judge apologised to Mukherjee.

Sengupta, who secured bail for his son-in-law, told The Telegraph that lawyer Rabishankar Chatterjee told him he would be unable to move the bail petition as he could not violate the Bar Association resolution.

"Instead, he encouraged us to go to Justice Gupta's court and argue our case ourselves," Sengupta said. "Some lawyers were hanging around Justice Gupta's courtroom but we managed to dodge them. There were some other litigants and they followed suit."

The other litigants, too, had been advised by their lawyers to approach the court of Justice Gupta themselves as their cases had been listed for hearing today.

Lawyer Chatterjee said he had no option but to ask his clients to appear before the judge themselves and argue their cases.

The secretary of the Bar Association, Rana Mukherjee, said lawyers could not stop clients from approaching Justice Gupta.

"I don't know which of our members shouted at the clients who had approached Justice Gupta. But in my opinion, it should not have happened," Mukherjee said.

"The matter is between the lawyers and the judge and litigants cannot become a party to it. They are free to approach the judge," he added.