The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed two Public Interest Litigations challenging the validity of the new Janata Dal United–Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government in Bihar, IANS reported. A division bench of Patna High Court Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay said that there was no need for the court to intervene, since the government had proved its majority on the floor of the Bihar Assembly, the Hindustan Times said.
Rashtriya Janata Dal MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Kumar had filed the first PIL. The second one was filed by a man identified as Jitender Kumar. The petitioners contended that during the 2015 Assembly elections, the JD(U)-RJD “grand alliance” had won the mandate.
They said that despite the RJD being the largest party in the Assembly, state Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi did not invite it to form the new government after Nitish Kumar quit. The petitioners claimed that the governor’s action was against the Constitution, and demanded the dismissal of the new government.
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