An end to the impasse over the lawyers' strike appears to be in sight. The Advocates' Association of Bangalore (AAB) late on Monday decided to confine its call to boycott courts only to the city and asked its sister associations elsewhere in the state to end their stir and return to the courts.

AAB representatives are calling on the Karnataka high court chief justice Vikramajit Sen on Tuesday morning. An AAB general body has been convened later in the day.

The decision came hours after high court chief justice Vikramjit Sen asked AAB members to call off the boycott and pave the way to find a solution to their problems by way of talks. "As a first step, you call off your strike. We can then talk," the chief justice told AAB president K N Subba Reddy and others when they urged him to take up suo-motu cognizance of the March 2 violence at the City Civil Court complex .

Balan, a senior advocate, prayed the court pass necessary orders on the lines of those passed by the Madras high court over the violence on its premises a few years ago.

"I have talked to your president sufficient number of times. He let us down (every time). Please do this (take back strike). We go one step further. Please do some introspection. This is helping nobody. There are lots cases pension, regulations and other matters that need to be looked into.

We want to know when you will call off your strike. What does the court have to do in this fracas? My colleagues went out of the way to help you. But now you are targeting my colleagues. How can you do that? What more should be done? Please call off the strike. Come back, you will not find us wanting," he observed.

On Sunday, the AAB had resolved to urge the chief justice to divest justice K Sreedhar Rao of his responsibility of being the administrative judge of the City Civil Court complex.

Hour after the chief justice's counsel, the AAB general body met for a couple of hours and decided to continue with the boycott.

"We discussed the matter. The members were in favour of continuing the boycott. Our grievance is not against the judiciary, but against the government. Though the judiciary has taken several steps, the government has not taken any concrete step," Reddy told TOI.

An AAB delegation later met the chief justice, after which the governing council met and decided to confine its agitation only to the city.

There was a marked improvement in attendance of lawyers during the high court proceedings on Monday. The lawyers' turnout in various court halls was way beyond anything witnessed during the last week.

With security presence palpable in corridors and outside, proceedings were normal in all court halls. In instances where advocates abstained, the parties were themselves seen presenting their cases as the judges had made it clear that no more adjournments would be given due to the strike.