The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday fined the Prime Minister’s Office and the Law Ministry Rs 5,000 for a delay in filing its response to a public interest litigation, reported PTI.

Petitioner Sunil Kandu had said that the Centre only takes into consideration 10 reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General out of the 5,000 reports submitted every year. In his plea, Kandu had also asked why the Central government has not taken any action on audit objections raised by the CAG in the last 10 years.

On August 1, 2017, when the PIL was first taken up, the High Court had asked the PMO and the Law Ministry to file their responses within a month. However, Assistant Solicitor General SB Pandey had bargained for more time during the next hearing.

On Wednesday, the bench of Justice Sudhir Agrawal and Justice Abdul Moin said the PMO and the Law Ministry acted in a lethargic manner in responding to the court orders. It, however, granted them one more chance to file a reply. The court will take up the matter again after three weeks.