Lawyers of Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court and district court abstained themselves from work in protest against the proposed service tax on them, on Monday.

Bar Association president Ajay Bagadia said that their work did not fall under the service category, hence it was improper to propose service tax on the lawyers.

Lawyers were likely to move the court if their day-long protest failed to yield any result, he added. About 20,000-25,000 lawyers across the state remained away from the work during the protest, he claimed.