New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday gave relief to Congress leader Ahmed Patel by directing the Gujarat high court not to proceed with the election petition filed against him after framing of issues for trial.

A three judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud passed this order on a petition filed by Mr. Patel challenging the elections proceedings in the Gujarat high court.

Taking note of the submisison that the high court was to frame issues in the election petition filed by defeated BJP candidate Balwantsinh Rajput on July 11, the Bench said “the high court can frame the issues but there will be a stay of further prcoeedings after framing of issues.” The Bench issued notice to Mr. Rajput and posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

The BJP nominee had questioned the Election Commission’s decision to invalidate two votes by rebel Congress MLAs after the Congress party had objected. Mr. Rajput also accused Mr. Patel of indulging in corrupt practices by allegedly holding 44 MLAs captive at a resort in Bengaluru.

Mr. Rajput, had moved the court against the EC's decision and said that once the returning officer had used his discretion to accept the two votes as valid, the EC had “no power to issue any direction to the returning officer for accepting or rejecting any vote”. The EC had invalidated the votes of former Congress MLAs Raghavji Patel and Bholabhai Gohel.