On Thursday the Lawyers Association at the Calcutta High Court set a record for the longest strike in its history by extending the ongoing cease work, making it an over two-month-long agitation over demand for appointment of judges.

Taking cognizance of the problems aof thousands of litigants, the Bar Association passed a resolution to extend the cease work till April 25 on the grounds that the concerned authorities are not taking any action to appoint any new judge or a permanent Chief Justice to the High Court.

The High Court at present has 33 judges against the sanctioned strength of 72 judges.

High Court Bar Association president Uttam Majumdar said that with this extension, this will become the longest strike in the history of the Calcutta High Court. The previous longest strike was of 2 months in 2002.

Meanwhile, the Youth Bar Association of India has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court praying for directions to be issued to the Supreme Court Collegium and Calcutta High Court Collegium to fill up the vacancies in the High Court.

The petition, drawn by advocates Sanpreet Singh Ajmani, Kuldeep Rai, Manohar Pratap and Varun Mishra, is filed through advocate Manju Jetley.

The petition states that due to non-appointment of judges, the Fundamental Rights of the citizens under Articles 14, 19 and 21 are being violated. The petitioners have prayed for issuance of a writ of Mandamus to direct the respondents to appoint judges as expeditiously as possible to meet the needs of litigants suffering from delay in access to justice.