Bihar police on Tuesday suspended a sub-inspector and a constable who had allegedly thrashed Gopalganj additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM)-I Prabhunath Prasad on June 30.

"The Gopalganj superintendent of police (SP) has placed both police personnel involved in the incident - sub-inspector A.K. Yadav and constable Pawan Kumar Singh - under suspension," director-general of police (DGP) P.K. Thakur told The Telegraph.

The action came a day after Patna High Court expressed displeasure over "inept handling" of the assault case by the state police. It had asked home department principal secretary Amir Subhani and DGP P.K. Thakur why no disciplinary action was taken against the accused policemen when they had stopped the magistrate while on his way to court.

Patna High Court on Tuesday gave the state government two weeks in which to file a counter-affidavit and fixed July 19 as the next date for hearing. The order came following a request from the government for more time.

The bench of Acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh also directed the home department and the police not to act on the two FIRs - by the ACJM and the police - till further orders.

The home department secretary and DGP informed the court about the suspensions. "We will file a detailed counter-affidavit in the high court in two weeks. It'll have our reply about the entire episode," Thakur said.

The Gopalganj ACJM was allegedly slapped and assaulted by the sub-inspector and constable after he requested the police for "right of passage" to the court to perform his duty.

The court, adjacent to the collectorate, as well as the road to it was barricaded because of the district board elections. Prasad was stopped though judicial officers had been provided a passage through the barricade.

A double bench of the high court of Acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh treated a report from the Gopalganj district and sessions judge Sunil Dutta Mishra on July 1 as a PIL.

They then sought a report from the home department principal secretary and the DGP. In his complaint, the ACJM said the policemen had misbehaved with him.

Sources in the Gopalganj police said the two police personnel were served a show cause notice with regard to the incident with directions to reply within three days, but their replies were found to be unsatisfactory.