NEW DELHI: In a big relief to Congress leader
Ahmed Patel, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the
Gujarat high court not to proceed beyond framing of issues in the trial on an election petition which challenged his election to
Rajya Sabha by a narrow margin last year.
Patel won the RS election along with BJP’s Amit Shah and
Smriti Irani on August 8 last year amid high drama. Before the poll, Congress chief whip Balwantsinh Rajput resigned from his party, joined BJP and filed his nomination. It was followed by resignation of five Congress MLAs and eight more openly rebelled. With cross-voting done openly, it was an anxious 24 hours before Patel scraped through to the Rajya Sabha for the fifth time.
Immediately after Patel was elected, Rajput filed a petition in the HC challenging the EC’s decision to invalidate votes of two rebel MLAs.
Appearing for Patel, senior advocate A M Singhvi and lawyer Devadatt Kamat almost convinced a bench of Chief Justice
Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud to stay the proceedings before the HC.