Bhubaneswar: Coming as a big relief for Odisha Congress, the Supreme Court today issued stay order on the Orissa High Court’s decision to dismiss its MLA Jogesh Singh from the Sundargarh Assembly Constituency.
With the SC’s stay order, Jogesh Singh will continue as the MLA of Sundergarh
“Since the High Court had cancelled the election of Jogesh Singh as Sundergarh MLA citing unavailability of evidence in support of his scheduled tribe (ST) caste status, a bench comprising Justice AK Sikri and Ashok Bhusan of the Supreme Court stated the judgment as unlawful and issued a stay order,” Jogesh’s counsel Pitambar Acharya said.
Singh’s MLA post was declared null and void by the High Court on January 30 on grounds of filing fake caste certificate during nomination for the 2014 Assembly Elections
BJP candidate Sahadev Xaxa, who lost to Singh in the 2014 general elections, and another voter Ajay Patel in two separate petitions had alleged that Singh submitted false and fabricated caste certificate categorising himself as belonging to the ‘Bhuyan’ tribe.