A large number of members of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association on Friday placed a joint petition before the executive committee seeking an immediate decision to boycott the courtroom of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal for his alleged “unethical activities”, which, according to them, were tarnishing the image of the “oldest high court of the country”.

The decision was taken at an extraordinary meeting of the association. Although most members of the association were present at the meeting that lasted for over two hours, the general secretary of the lawyers’ body did not turn up. The meeting resolved that the future course of action would be decided on July 27 and Friday’s discussion communicated to Justice Bindal for his consideration.

Tussle between the lawyers and the acting chief justice had started after the latter on May 17 had taken up the CBI’s prayer regarding the arrest |of four leaders accused in the Narada case instead of sending it to a single judge bench.

“Moreover, the acting chief justice unethically set up a fivejudge bench after the brother judge of his division bench had differed with him on the issue of granting bail to the four leaders. According to convention, a third judge of the court is usually involved in disposing of a case if two judges of a division bench have two different views on a matter,” a senior lawyer of the court said.

Most lawyers present at the meeting on Friday were in favour of boycotting the acting chief justice’s court immediately. However, such a decision was avoided as senior member of the association, Arunava Ghosh, advised them to give Justice Bindal time to consider their grievances before embarking on the boycott path.

The members asked |executive committee member Ritzu Ghoshal to intimate Justice Bindal about their decision.

The meeting also urged the acting chief justice to resume physical hearing of cases in the court immediately as many lawyers did not have proper infrastructure to fight their cases virtually.