A group of Supreme Court lawyers formed a human chain today at Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) premises, demanding more virtual benches of the Appellate and High Court Divisions for disposing of cases.

The lawyers, led by former SCBA secretary Momtaz Uddin Ahmed Mehedi, formed the human chain, saying that the authorities have decided to run only four HC benches during the weeklong government-imposed restrictions.

But none of the benches sat today for dealing with the cases, he said.

Thousands of lawyers and litigants are suffering due to the absence of court functions, the lawyers said.

They urged the chief justice to operate several benches for hearing and disposing of more cases.

On Sunday, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain decided to run the court functions on a limited scale for seven days from today.

The Supreme Court administration issued three separate notifications last night to this effect.