HC adjourns till Monday petitions challenging new Nitish govt

Patna: The Patna High Court today adjourned till Monday the hearing on two PILs challenging the formation of the new government by Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) along with the BJP.

After a brief hearing, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A K Upadhyay adjourned the matter. Two PILs were filed and their lawyers made a mention of them before the bench ahead of the crucial trust vote the Nitish Kumar government has to take in the Bihar Assembly.

One PIL has been filed by RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma while the second one by Jitendra Kumar who is a member of the Samajwadi Party.

The petitions sought the court’s order for issuance of a direction to invite the leader of the single largest party to form government in the state.

Principal Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore and Additional Solicitor General S D Sanjay termed the PILs as “frivolous”.

Kishore told the court that while copy of the petitions had been given to the counsel of the Union government, the same was not served to those of other parties including the Governor, the Election Commission of India and the Government of Bihar.

After a brief hearing, the court posted the matter for further hearing on Monday next. Kumar is seeking a trust vote during a one-day special session of the Bihar assembly after the governor asked him to prove his majority on the floor of the House on July 28.