New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has issued contempt of court notices to lawyers for allegedly striking too frequently, Bar and Bench has reported.Justice Alok Mathur said that professional misconduct by a lawyer may amount to contempt of court and issued show-cause notices to striking lawyers asking as to why their strikes would not amount to contempt.“…[S]how cause through counsel as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for frequently calling for strikes of the bar association due to which the judicial work of the revenue courts is affected which is amount to wilful disobedience of the judgment passed by Hon’ble Supreme Court…,” the judge said.Last year, the high court had directed a tehsildar to decide a land revenue case fast. The court then found that the case was being adjourned “mostly on the ground of strike of lawyers.”“Therefore, it would not be appropriate to issue any direction for disposal of case within some time bound period,” the court said.A contempt petition was thus filed against members of the Ambedkar Nagar Bar Association, three present and former office bearers of which have been show-caused by the high court.The judge cited that the frequent strikes violate the Supreme Court’s judgment in the 2002 Ex-Capt. Harish Uppal vs Union Of India & Anr case.In this case, the apex court held that lawyers must not go on strike or issue calls for boycott and that their protests should be through placard demonstrations, coloured armbands, peaceful marches outside or away from courts and interviews to news outlets.The high court judge also held that poor litigants had approached the court because their cases were kept pending by the revenue courts over long periods thanks to the lawyers’ strikes.“The cases remain pending as the call for boycott from judicial work by local Bar Association is very frequent, and no judicial work is carried out during that day,” the high court order said, according to Bar and bench.