CUTTACK: In a major relief to Sundargarh Congress MLA Jogesh Singh, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Orissa High Court’s January 30 order quashing his 2014 election and disqualifying him as an MLA.“Division bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan has ordered an interim stay on the Orissa high court verdict. Following the Supreme court’s order, Singh will continue to serve as the MLA of Sundargarh,” said Singh’s counsel, Pitambar Acharya.The Supreme Court has also issued notices to the opposite parties, the candidates who had contested against Singh from the constituency in 2014, and asked them to submit their replies within four weeks.Notably, the Orissa high court on January 30 had declared election of Jogesh Singh as null and void. The court had given the verdict in response to two petitions filed separately by defeated BJP candidate from the constituency, Sahadev Xaxa and another voter of the constituency, Ajay Patel alleging that Singh had contested and won 2014 elections from Sundargarh constituency, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidate, on basis of fake caste certificate.Xaxa also alleged in his plea that Singh had not disclosed details of his spouse and dependents, neither his property details in his nomination papers, which is mandatory. After hearing the matter at length for four long years, the high court had pronounced the verdict against Singh. The high court had directed the state election commission to deal with the situation at Sundargarh Assembly constituency as casual vacancy and take appropriate measures to fill it.However, Singh had moved Supreme Court challenging the Orissa high court’s order. “The high court had quashed my client’s election on the ground that he had not disclosed some information in his affidavit. He was not disqualified for submitting fake caste certificate. We challenged it in Supreme court as the order was faulty,” said Acharya. Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal and Acharya argued Singh’s case in the Supreme Court.On the other hand, Xaxa’s counsel Gopal Agarwal has said appropriate details and documents will be submitted in the Supreme Court to substantiate their allegations. “We will file our reply within the stipulated time to prove our allegations,” said Agarwal.

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