Advocates of Calcutta High Court who had been staying away from their place of work for more than two months at the call of Bar Association of the Calcutta High Court will return to the court from Monday.

The assocation on Saturday withdrew its abstention call following the Centre’s notification to appoint four more judges and a permanent Chief Justice, association president, Uttam Majumdar said during the day.

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“We have now got the notification from the Centre about the appointment of four new judges who will take over from next week,” Majumdar said. The high court will also have a permanent Chief Justice from next week and against this backdrop, we are lifting the ceasework, he added.

Three judges had been appointed by the Centre in March. With four new appointments on Saturday, the high court now has 37 judges which is a little over 50 per cent of the sanctioned strength of 72 judges.

“We had asserted that the ceasework will automatically stand withdrawn if the appointment of new judges is notified in the meantime, the association president said. He was replying to a question about the association’s earlier decision at a general body meeting that the ceasework will continue till May 11. Besides, we also have to keep in mind the interest of the litigants, Mr Majumdar said.

The lawyers had been staying away from court since 19 February in support of their demands which include filling up of vacant posts of judges and appointment of a permanent Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court.
The court has been headed by acting chief justices for several years.

The judges and lawyers will be faced with a huge backlog of pending cases when it reopens next week. There were 2.22 lakh cases pending before it at the end of January.

The Bar Association, which has the support of most of the lawyers, said the decision to lift the ceasework was taken unanimously in consultation with other striking lawyers’ bodies.

The previous longest strike had lasted for two months in 2002, which was in protest against the hike in stamp duty by the state government which was observed across all courts in the state including the Calcutta High Court.