New Delhi: The Supreme Court today stayed the Election Commission’s 10 March decision notifying Gujarat’s Talala Assembly constituency seat as vacant and declaring bypolls there along with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also issued notice to the poll panel on a plea filed by former Congress MLA B D Barad, who had challenged his disqualification as an MLA and the subsequent EC’s decision notifying the seat as vacant.
Barad has moved the apex court against the Gujarat High Court’s 27 March verdict dismissing his petition against his disqualification as an MLA and also against the EC’s decision notifying the bypolls there.
Barad was disqualified as an MLA by the assembly speaker on 5 March following his conviction in a case.
Barad was convicted by a magisterial court on 1 March in a case for offence under section 379 (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and was sentenced to two years and nine month jail along with a fine of Rs 2,500. On the same day, the magistrate had suspended the sentence and released him on bail.