The Balangir District Bar Association began a two-day close-office agitation from Friday to press for their demand of establishment of a permanent High Court Bench here.
Hundreds of members of the association sat on dharna in front of the District Collectorate and the District and Sessions Judge courts as mark of protest.
Various offices belonging to Government and private organisaions, excluding schools, colleges and markets, remained closed.
“In protest against the Government’s continuous neglect, we have called this two-day shutdown agitation. We would take the next course of action at a meeting to be held Saturday,” said senior lawyer Bhavani Satapathy.
Notably, the shutdown is just as an addition to the ongoing cease-work agitation which the lawyers in the district have been resorting to since February 3 last.