Sena moves SC against governor's refusal to give more time, declined urgent hearing

The Shiv Sena on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Maharashtra governor's decision of not granting it three days to submit the letter of support for government formation in the state but failed to get an urgent hearing in the matter.

The petition is likely to come up before the apex court on Wednesday morning.

The lawyer representing the Shiv Sena told PTI that the apex court registry has informed that it is "not possible to constitute a bench today".

"The Supreme Court has asked us to mention the writ petition that we filed at 10.30 AM on Wednesday before the court," Advocate Sunil Fernandes, who filed the petition on behalf of the Shiv Sena, told PTI.

He said the fresh/second petition challenging the imposition of President's rule in the state is being readied.

"The decision on when to file it (fresh petition) will be taken tomorrow," he said.

The Shiv Sena has sought a direction from the apex court to quash the Governor's decision, taken on Monday, of not giving it the opportunity to prove majority on the floor of the House.

In a petition, filed through advocate Fernandes, the party claimed it was invited to form the government on Monday and had indicated its willingness to do so on Tuesday.

The governor's decision is unconstitutional, discriminatory, unreasonable, capricious and mala fide, the party said in the plea, adding that "the governor can't act in a manner to only suit the majority political party" at the Centre or act on the central government's "diktats".

"The petitioners are constrained to move the writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking urgent reliefs against the arbitrary and mala fide actions of the Maharashtra governor who in hot haste has on November 11 refused to grant even three days time to the petitioner to demonstrate that it has the requisite majority to form government in the state," according to the plea.

In the petition, the Sena contended that the governor's decision was violative of articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

"It is ex facie arbitrary, unreasonable, capricious and mala fide exercise of power in order to ensure that Shiv Sena is precluded from getting a fair and reasonable opportunity of proving majority on the floor of the House," it said.

The plea said the governor's decision rejecting the claim of the Shiv Sena, which is the second largest party with 56 MLAs, to form government is "ex facie arbitrary, unconstitutional and violative of article 14".

The Shiv Sena was invited to form the state government on November 10 and the petitioner had indicated its willingness to form the government on November 11, it said