Calcutta, July 13: Chief Justice Manjula Chellur today told advocates that judges from outside the state had asked her whether lawyers skip courts here to mourn the death of their colleagues.

"I received calls from the judges of the Supreme Court and Mumbai High Court recently. They asked me if there was a practice of not attending courts because of the death of a lawyer," Chief Justice Chellur said this afternoon.

She made the statement while going through a notice from the Bar Association - the body of lawyers with over 7,000 members - that said its members would abstain from courts from 3.30pm today to mourn the death of a fellow advocate.

Although the chief justice gave in to the demand of the Bar Association by allowing members to leave the court by 3.30pm, she tossed up a proposal for the advocates.

She told the lawyers: "Please ask them (Bar Association leaders) to select Fridays for such mournings. They can mourn deaths of lawyers from 3.30pm on Fridays."

Justice Joymalya Bagchi, who sat in the division bench with the chief justice, said: "In other high courts, there is no such practice of not attending courts because of the death of a fellow lawyer."

Calcutta High Court has a 10.30am-4.30pm schedule on weekdays, with a 45-minute recess. Though the court offices remain open on Saturdays, no cases are heard.

Since assuming charge in August 2014, Chellur, a former judge in Kerala High Court, has been trying to improve the work culture in Calcutta High Court.

Unscheduled mass abstention by lawyers has reduced the number of working days in Calcutta High Court to 180, lower than the Supreme Court's stipulation of a minimum of 210 days.

Last week, Chief Justice Chellur had told advocates that she would like to hear cases related to "Ponzi schemes" on Saturdays after her earlier proposal of having a six-day week at the high court was turned down by the Bar Association.

Although the Bar Association had vehemently opposed the six-day roster and even threatened to call strikes, it is yet to formally respond to Chellur's proposal of holding hearings on funds-mobilising related cases on Saturdays.

"The fact that her attempt at improving work culture is yielding results can be gauged from the Bar Association's proposal not to attend courts after 3.30pm in the case of a death of a colleague. Till a few months ago, the advocates would skip courts from the morning itself," said a senior advocate of the high court.

Lower number of working days in Calcutta High Court has often been blamed for delay in justice. On the last count, the number of pending cases was little over 3.2 lakh (as on December 1, 2014).