Sena moves Supreme Court against Governor's 'arbitrary' act

New Delhi: The Shiv Sena on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against the Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's decision not to extend the 24-hour deadline given to the party to prove its number on the floor to form the government.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court registry on Tuesday evening asked the lawyer of the Shiv Sena to mention its petition for hearing on Wednesday morning before a court of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi.

While the Supreme Court registry informed the Sena lawyer that it is not possible to constitute a bench on Tuesday itself, it asked him to mention the matter on Wednesday morning.

The Sena, which has emerged as the second-largest party with 56 seats in the 288-member Assembly, said that it was constrained to move the top court seeking urgent relief against the "arbitrary and mala fide actions" of the Governor.

The party sought quashing of the order of the Governor and declaring the action "unconstitutional, arbitrary, illegal, void-ab-initio, and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India".

Also raising questions on the Governor's behaviour, it said that he cannot act in such a manner or act on the diktats of the Central Government.

The Sena was invited by the Governor when the single-largest party BJP, which won 105 seats, said that it cannot form a government. It told the court that the Governor was in "hot haste" as he refused to grant even three days' time to prove the requisite majority to form the government.

"The impugned actions/decisions of the Governor is violative of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution.

It is ex facie arbitrary, unreasonable, capricious and a mala fide exercise of the power in order to ensure that the Petitioner No 1 (Shiv Sena) is precluded from getting a fair and reasonable opportunity of proving its majority on the floor of the House," the petition filed through senior advocate Kapil Sibal, lawyers Sunil Fernandes and Nizam Pasha said.

According to the petition, Shiv Sena had requested three days time to give the letters of support to demonstrate that it has the requisite majority to form the government on the same day when it has staked claim to form the government.

The Sena said that the party was in advanced talks for government formation with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as well as the Congress.

In its petition, the Sena also mentioned the step taken by the party including party MP Sanjay Raut meeting NCP chief Sharad Pawar and said that these talks have been in a positive direction.

The party also mentioned resignation of Arvind Sawant, the sole Union Minister from the Shiv Sena in the NDA government, from the Union Cabinet on November 11. It also informed the court about Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's telephonic conversation with the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.

Sena also said that the party has got the support of eight independent MLAs - Narendra Bondekar, Manjula Gavith, Shankar Rao Gadak, Chandrakanth Patil, Ashish Jaiswal, Bachhukadu, Rajkumar Patel and Rajendra Patel Vadraokar.

It pleaded with the court to intervene and direct the Governor to grant reasonable time to the party to prima facie demonstrate the requisite support to form the government.