Jabalpur, Nov 28 (PTI)The Madhya Pradesh High Court has imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the state government for not filing a reply to an anticipatory bail application moved by former Congress MLA Choudhary Gambhir Singh.

Singh is an accused in a case related to blackening of the face of a sub-divisional officer during a protest at Chourai in Chhindwara district in September.

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He applied for pre-arrest bail after the case was registered, said his lawyer Varun Tankha.

"Despite repeated opportunities granted to the State and its functionaries the reply has not been filed since October 23, 2020," said a division bench of acting Chief Justice Sanjay Yadav and Justice Sujoy Paul on Friday.

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The state will get one last opportunity to file reply, "subject to cost of Rs 50,000 to be deposited with the High Court Legal Services Committee", it said.

The government can recover the amount from the officer responsible for not filing the reply, it added, adjourning the hearing to December 1.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)