John Suzi Banda, former president of the Malawi Law Society, told VOA the lawyers are concerned about constant attacks on the judiciary from the executive arm.
In a statement last week, the government said the chief justice has accumulated more than 500 leave days, which would take him to his retirement time.
Banda says the move violates the separation of powers, one of the key pillars of the country's constitutional democracy that makes the three arms of government — legislature, executive and judiciary — independent of each other.
But the government is refusing to budge, saying this is not the first time that chief justices have gone on leave pending retirement after accumulating leave days.
In a statement Tuesday, government spokesperson Mark Botoman said the Mutharika government sees nothing wrong in asking the incumbent chief justice to go on leave until his retirement.
