NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday in its order stayed the Bombay High Court's recent direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to immediately conduct the by-poll election for the Pune Lok Sabha Constituency, which became vacant after the death of Member of Parliament (MP), Girish Bapat on March 29 last year.
A bench of the Apex Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud stayed the Bombay HC order, after hearing an appeal filed by the ECI against the HC order.
The Bombay HC's two-judge bench had on December 13, 2023, on hearing a plea filed by a Pune resident, in its order asked the ECI to immediately hold the by-poll election for the Pune Lok Sabha Constituency.
The two-judge bench, of the Bombay HC, headed by Justice Gautam Patel and also comprising Justice Kamal Khata, had passed the order, after hearing the plea filed by the Pune resident, Sughosh Joshi.
He had filed the plea in the HC seeking to direct the ECI to hold the by-poll elections, as more than eight months had already lapsed for the election commission to fill the vacancy as prescribed under the law.
It had told the ECI it could not leave a constituency vacant and deny rights to voters.
Challenging this HC order, the ECI filed an appeal before the Apex Court and sought an immediate stay of it, to which the SC granted the body the relief.