Bengaluru: Hearing in majority of the 45,690 cases posted before various taluk, district and metropolitan courts across the State, and around 1,800 cases before the High Court of Karnataka’s principal Bench in Bengaluru and two permanent Benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi were affected on Friday owing to boycott of court proceedings by lawyers.

The advocates boycotted the proceedings in support of a nationwide call given by the Bar Council of India (BCI) to oppose some of the recommendations made by the Law Commission of India for amending the Advocates Act. According to available data on cases posted for hearing before different courts in Karnataka on March 31, as many as 25,202 civil cases and 20,488 criminal cases were listed for hearing at different stages, but the courts could not adjudicate these cases as advocates abstained from proceedings in most of the subordinate courts in the taluks and districts.

However, a few judges in the principal Bench of the High Court in Bengaluru conducted proceedings till lunch break in some of the cases where the advocates from both sides attended the proceedings or the litigants themselves presented their cases that did not involve major legal issue.

The lawyers were opposing the recommendations for prohibition on boycott or abstention from courts’ work by lawyers, for imposing fine up to Rs. 3 lakh against a lawyer found guilty of misconduct, for awarding payment of compensation up to Rs. 5 lakh to a person aggrieved by a lawyer’s misconduct, for including persons other than the field of law to the State Bar Councils, and for nominating retired judges of Supreme Court and High Court as members of BCI.