Patna High Court dismisses PILs challenging formation of JD(U), BJP government

Patna: The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed two PILs challenging the formation of the new government by Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) along with the BJP. After hearing all parties, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice AK Upadhyay dismissed the two PILs saying no intervention of the court is required, after floor test in the state Assembly. [caption id=“attachment_3209538” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Nitish Kumar. Reuters.[/caption] While one PIL was filed by RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma, the second one was filed by Jitendra Kumar, a Samajwadi Party member. The petitioners, on 28 July, had 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 SD Sanjay had termed the PILs as “frivolous”. Kishore had 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 had adjourned the matter for Monday. The new Nitish Kumar government in which the NDA is a coalition partner won the trust vote on last Friday. With inputs from PTI