Patna, April 20: The legal battle between the state government and liquor manufacturers is about to intensify.

Senior officials of the state excise and prohibition department today told The Telegraph that the state government was all set to rope in a senior Supreme Court lawyer, preferably former Union minister Kapil Sibal, to fight the case against the parties that have challenged total prohibition in Patna High Court.

The high court on Tuesday directed the state government to file its reply latest by April 22 in connection with imposition of total prohibition in the state. It will hear the case again on April 26.

"The department has decided to bring in Kapil Sibal and we are doing the needful for this," said Omprakash Mandal, assistant commissioner at the department.

Following the call for total prohibition in Bihar on April 5, the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies, along with many other parties, filed a PIL (public interest litigation) against the government's order on April 11, challenging the order.

With many writ petitions coming up in court, principal additional advocate-general Lalit Kishore on Tuesday asked the government to put forth its stand through a consolidated counter-affidavit.

The court had directed Kishore to clear the government's stand on the issue by April 22.

The state government on Monday decided to return the licence fees to all bars, restaurants and clubs in the state.

Sources said some of the bodies that were fighting the case against the government were also planning to bring in a senior lawyer from the Supreme Court to fight their cause.

The division bench of Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh and Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh on April 13 had passed an interim order directing the government to not take any coercive action against liquor manufacturers who have stocks left.

Ajay Kumar Singh, a senior member of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of Bihar, said the legal battle would continue and they were prepared to take it to the Supreme Court.

"The state government gave us licences first and we paid them a sum for it," he said. "We spent a large amount of money to renovate our bars for the new financial year. Then it suddenly announced total prohibition when we went to collect our stocks from the Bihar State Beverage Corporation Limited on April 5. They should have informed us of it in advance."