The tussle between the legal community and the Orissa government over imposition of professional tax has taken a serious turn with the agitating lawyers giving a call for a statewide bandh on December 22 in support of their demand for scrapping the new tax. “A convention of lawyers of 70 bar associations held in Cuttack on Sunday decided to intensify the agitation by resorting to boycott of court work throughout the state from Monday,” the president of the Orissa High Court Bar Association, B.K. Mohanty told newsmen after the meeting.
The members of the High Court Bar Association have been on strike since December seven last demanding withdrawal of the professional tax which had been made effective since November one last. The convention also condemned the brutal attack on a peaceful rally of lawyers at Berhampur on Saturday during the visit of chief minister Naveen Patnaik and also arrest of lawyers at Jeypore, Mohanty, who chaired the meeting, said. It demanded a judicial inquiry into the two incidents and suspension of the DIG of police (southern range) and the sub-collector, Berhampur for alleged assault on the lawyers. Bureau Report