Bombay HC refuses urgent hearing on plea against Uddhav's swearing-in

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has refused to take up urgent hearing on a petition filed by a group of lawyers seeking a stay on the swearing-in of Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of Maharashtra on Thursday evening.

The petitioners sought an urgent hearing of their plea, saying the Shiv Sena and BJP should have stood by their pre-poll alliance and formed government. However, two different benches of the high court refused to take up the petition for hearing.

A division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre asked what was "unconstitutional and void" about the swearing-in ceremony of Thackeray.

The petitioner's lawyer, Mathew Nedumpara, said there has been a breach of trust of the voters, who wanted the Sena and BJP to form government. To this, Chief Justice Nandrajog said, "Is the concept of divorce not new to the law of marriages."

Earlier, another division bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and R I Chagla also refused to take up the petition for urgent hearing, saying the bench does not have the time.

The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have come together under the front called 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' to form government in the state. The BJP and the Sena, which fought the last month's Assembly polls in an alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats respectively.

The Sena, however, broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister's post. The NCP and Congress won 54 and 44 seats respectively.