The Supreme Court on Monday sought the appearence of Attorney General or any law officer of the Centre nominated by the AG for hearing the petition filed by former legislators of Bihar challenging the decision to dissolve the state assembly.
A Bench comprising Justice P V Reddi and Justice Arijit Pasayat fixed June 10 to hear the petition filed by four former MLAs -- Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia (Bharatiya Janata Party), Kishore Kumar Munna (Independent), Rampravesh Rai (Janata Dal-U) and Dr Anil Kumar (breakaway faction of Lok Janshakti Party).
The MLAs, all elected in the 2005 polls, accused the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre of subverting democratic norms at the behest of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to prevent JD-U leader Nitish Kumar from staking claim to form the government.
Since no one appeared for the Centre when matter came for hearing, the Bench asked senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the former MLAs, to serve a copy of the petition to the AG or any law officer of the Centre.
Besides the Centre, the petitioners have also named Bihar governor Buta Singh as a respondent.
Rohatgi alleged that the action of the governor to recommend dissolution of the assembly was not proper because realignment of political forces in the state began on May 20 and he sent the Union cabinet a report on the political developments even before somebody could stake claim to form the government.
The petitioners stated that 22 of the 29 MLAs of the LJP had agreed to merge with JD-U and party leader Nitish Kumar was to stake claim before the governor on May 23.
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