Chandigarh, May 16 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday extended its interim order till May 22 restraining Punjab from taking coercive action against Rajya Sabha member Sandeep Pathak without prior permission of the court as the government failed to apprise whether any criminal case had been registered against the MP. Senior advocate RS Rai, who appeared for Pathak, accused the government of "playing hide and seek". He said despite high court's directions in this regard during previous proceedings, the government was not informing the court whether any criminal case had been registered against the leader. Pathak is among the seven MPs, who on April 24 left the AAP and joined the BJP in New Delhi. Reports about the registration of two criminal cases against the RS MP appeared in the media in the first week of May but have not been confirmed by the authorities. Pathak approached court on May 8 seeking copies of the purported FIRs. The state's counsel raised issue of the petition's maintainability and argued that supplying the requested information would grant the petitioner the relief they sought. The state also expressed apprehension that such a precedent would open the "floodgates", allowing anyone to approach the court with similar petitions. However, Rai countered by saying that once an FIR existed, a citizen had the right to know. "You are supposed to upload it within 24 hours. Here, you are playing hide and seek," he said, further adding that there were no answers despite two hearings in this case on May 8 and May 11. At one point, the court also observed, "I fail to understand what is the hesitation in answering the query as to whether any offence has been registered or not registered." At the end, the court extended interim protection to Pathak and adjourned the matter for May 22 while recording that "the state has sought time to answer query of the court whether any cognisable offence has been registered"....