New Delhi: The NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress’ urgent petition against the formation of a BJP-led government in Maharashtra was a rare occasion for the Supreme Court to function on a Sunday.
This is the second time this month that the court has witnessed a frenzy on a weekend — the Ayodhya verdict being the first, declared on a Saturday, 9 November.
In fact, in all of 2019, this is the fourth time the court has held a hearing on a non-working day — the previous ones were regarding the sexual harassment allegations against former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi (Saturday, 9 April), the Aarey forest case the day before Dussehra (Monday, 7 October, which was the beginning of a week-long holiday for the court), and the Ayodhya verdict.
At 11:30 am Sunday, a three-judge bench of Justices N.V. Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna heard the parties’ plea asking for a floor test within 24 hours. The bench said the plea deserved consideration and ordered the central government, through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, to produce letters of support presented by BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and the latter’s invitation to form the government by 10:30 am Monday.
Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal appeared in the court on behalf of the petitioners.
ThePrint’s Suraj Singh Bisht brings you a few snapshots of the busy Sunday at the Supreme Court.
(With inputs from Debayan Roy)