HC refuses interim relief in PIL against trust vote won by BJP

Mumbai, Nov 19: The Bombay High Court today refused to grant interim relief in the public interest litigation which challenges the controversial vote of confidence won by BJP government in Maharashtra Assembly on November 12.

Petitioner Sanjay Lakhe Patil and Sanjay Chitnis had requested the court to restrain the BJP government from taking any decision until the PIL was decided.

However, the division bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah said at this juncture it would not be possible to grant any interim relief. The court posted the PIL for hearing along with two other petitions on the same issue on November 28.

The Devendra Fadnavis led government won the confidence motion through a voice vote instead of division of vote, which invited sharp criticism from opposition Shiv Sena and Congress. The other two PILs have been filed by Ketan Tirodkar and Rajkumar Awasti.

The present PIL says that the BJP government needed support of 145 MLAs to win the confidence motion in the 288-member Assembly (current strength is 287), and as it did not have the number it resorted to voice vote.

Under the constitution, the respondents (the Speaker and the CM) were duty-bound to hold a secret ballot or head count to establish majority in the house, it contends. All the three petitions have sought quashing of the confidence motion.

PTI