NEW DELHI: In a big relief to Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, the Supreme Court has stayed the proceedings before the Orissa High Court in an election petition challenging his 2024 victory from the Patnagarh Assembly constituency.
“Issue notice (to respondent, Saroj Kumar Meher) returnable within four weeks. In the meantime, further proceedings in the Election Petition No.20 of 2024 pending before the High Court shall remain stayed,” said the two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.
The dispute was related to the 2024 Assembly elections, when Singh Deo was declared elected from Patnagarh. Following this, an election petition was filed before the Orissa HC by his rival candidate, Saroj Kumar Meher. The petition questioned the validity of Singh Deo’s election and alleged improper acceptance of his nomination papers.
In his defence, Singh Deo maintained that the election petition lacked mandatory affidavits and material facts under election law.
The top court, found substance in Singh Deo’s plea, and passed the interim order staying the High Court proceedings and issued notice to Meher and sought his response. It said, the matter will now be heard after notice is served and responses are filed by the parties.
Primarily on November 28, 2025, the Orissa HC had dismissed the application of Singh Deo after holding that the alleged defects were curable in nature and allowed the election petition (filed by Meher) to proceed. Following this, Singh Deo knocked the doors of the apex court challenging the HC order.
Singh Deo in the top court contended that the HC had erred in treating the complete absence of a statutory affidavit as a curable defect.