The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by three members of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena seeking permission to hold their annual ‘Diwali Pahat’, a musical programme, in Thane district. A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and Kamal Khata said the plea was “devoid of merits” and hence dismissed. The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has granted permission to members of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Sena to hold this programme at the same location in the city neighbouring Mumbai.

The petition

The petition, filed by Mandar Vichare, Sudhir Belose and Janak Sanghvi through their Anand Charitable Trust, challenged an October 13 order of the TMC granting permission to the Shinde Sena for erecting a pandal and stage in Thane, after preliminary permission was granted to the petitioners on October 10. “The impugned order is ex-facie illegal and abuse of process of law, nullity, void, against the principles of equity and natural justice, a gross abuse of the powers and jurisdiction, a gross misuse of the process of law, arbitrary and unlawful,” the petition said. It claimed the permission to the other group was granted surreptitiously.