President of the Chittagong Bar Ibrahim Hossain Babul said the probe bodies have shortlisted some 40 lawyers out of 111 including the High Court's Additional Judge Faisal Mahmud Faizee, who had earlier been listed as accused of tampering with the mark sheets.

He said that the bar association in its general meeting scheduled for November 8 would decide on the next course of action against the shortlisted lawyers.

Chittagong bar had formed two bodies to probe the mark sheets scandal involving lawyers practising in Chittagong courts.

Bar sources said that the lawyers, who had been listed as allegedly involved in doctoring their certificates, have stopped coming to court for the past few days.

Meanwhile, sources said the Chittagong University authorities too have decided to take punitive action against 2400 examineees for doctoring mark sheets during the period of 1983-94. A probe body in 1996 detected the irregularities.