Acting Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice K.S. Gupta, in their order said the petition had ``no constitutional merit but involved only political issues".

``No political issues should be raised in the forum of the court,'' the bench cautioned. The petition, terming the appointment of Swaraj just six weeks before the Assembly election as ``malafide, illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and against the model code of conduct'', was filed by advocate Janak Raj Jai.

Referring to the dismissal of a similar petition by the Supreme court, at the time of replacing Deve Gowda by I.K. Gujral as PM, the bench said ``if the apex court cannot intervene in such matters, how can we interfere''?