Patna: The Patna high court on Friday adjourned till 31 July the hearing on two public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the formation of the new government by Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (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 lawyers for the petitioners made a mention of the litigations before the bench ahead of the crucial trust vote.
One PIL has been filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma, while the second one was filed 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 a copy each of the petitions had been given to the counsel for 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 31 July. Bihar CM Nitish 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 Friday.
