Constitution Bench for Bihar House dissolution

The petition will come up for hearing before the Constitution Bench on September 6. The court also kept open the option of referring it to an even larger bench reminding the Attorney-General that such a move would require forceful arguments from his side.

On July 25, the apex court, while perusing the PIL had allowed one of the petitioners Poornima Yadav, an Independent MLA in the dissolved House, to move an application for interim orders. The decision was significant as it amounted to keeping open the possibility of even the restoration of the dissolved Assembly.

Yadav’s counsel had told the court that under the S.R. Bommai case ruling, ‘‘the least relief’’ was ‘‘an injunction restraining the holding of fresh elections’’. The bench brushed aside the contention of the Government that the interim relief envisaged by the Bommai verdict could not be applied to Bihar where the Assembly was dissolved without being constituted.