Shimla, Jan. 7 -- The Himachal Pradesh High Court has imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the state government for failing to file its reply in a PIL challenging the extension of the tenure of the Shimla Municipal Corporation from two-and-a-half years to five years, allegedly in violation of the Municipal Corporation Act.
The order was passed by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Jiya Lal Bhardwaj on Wednesday, which took serious note of the state's continued non-compliance despite the urgency of the matter.
The court observed that the state's reply was still lying under objections and had not been re-filed, even though the petitioner had already completed pleadings by filing a rejoinder.
The bench ...