Cracks appeared within the Calcutta High Court Bar Association on Wednesday on the issue of continuing the week-long cease-work that began a day ago against the “scarcity of judges”.

Even as Amjad Ali, the president of the Bar Association, today turned down Chief Justice S S Nijjar’s request of withdrawing the cease-work protest, a section of lawyers’ group expressed their willingness to join the work.

In a related development, a section of members held a meeting in the High Court demanding an emergency meeting of the Bar Association to call off the strike. “We will wait till Thursday for the meeting. A large section of Bar members would break the cease-work unless the president or general secretary of the Bar Association called a general meeting tomorrow,” said Arunav Ghosh, a member of the association. He said senior members of the association had requested Ali to call for a meeting on Thursday but he did not respond to it.

The Bar Library Club is also not keen to support the week-long cease-work. Bhaskar Sen, president of the club, said they supported the cease-work for the first two days to show their solidarity towards the Bar Association since it is the largest association of the advocates. The club will hold a meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue.

Earlier in the day, Chief Justice Nijjar requested Bar Association president Ali to withdraw the cease-work, which has paralysed work at the Calcutta High Court. Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Ali said the chief justice proposed “something” against the withdrawal of the cease-work but it was not possible to accept the proposals.