Hindi oath row: Petition in SC against Raj Thackeray

A writ petition was today filed in the Supreme Court seeking registration of an FIR against MNS chief Raj Thackeray for assaulting SP MLA Abu Azmi in the Maharashtra Assembly for taking oath in Hindi instead of Marathi.

The petition filed by one Salek Chand Jain also sought a direction to the Election Commission to de-recognise the MNS for sparking violence "throughout the country" by whipping up parochial feelings.

Sugreve Dubey, counsel for the petitioner, made an impromptu mention of the petition before a Bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices P Sathasivam and B Sudershan Reddy.

The Bench directed the petitioner to file the same through the registry.

Referring to the assault of SP Party MLA on the floor of the house by MNS MLAs, the petition claimed the incident has provoked country-wide violence in the name of language and regionalism, thus threatening national unity.