Over 5,000 members of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association on Monday unanimously decided to boycott the court of Chief Justice V.S. Sirpurkar from February 1, 2006, for allegedly ?insulting? their vice-president and other members of the association.

The chief justice had ?felt no need? to meet the association on January 25 when it tried to ventilate some problems the court?s advocates faced, the members alleged.

?Unless the office of the chief justice regrets the incident, there is no other way than to refrain or to abstain from attending his court from February 1, 2006,? the resolution adopted by the members said.

Association secretary Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay said copies of the resolution were sent to the chief justice?s office and to the Chief Justice of India as well. This is the first time in the high court?s history that a chief justice has been condemned by lawyers for his ?misbehaviour?, Mukhopadhyay pointed out.

?Our vice-president Bhudeb Bhattacharjee, assistant secretary Harihar Debnath and some senior executive committee members went to meet the chief justice to place a memorandum listing the problems that we face. They waited for one-and-a-half hours, and later in the evening, an officer of the chief justice?s office told them that Justice Sirpurkar did not feel any need to meet them,? Mukhopadhyay said.

On January 27, the vice-president, during a meeting of the association, told members that the chief justice had misbehaved with him two days ago. Thereafter, the executive committee of the association called an emergency meeting on January 30 to discuss the issue.

On Monday, the members unanimously voted to boycott the chief justice?s court from Wednesday.