Jogesh Singh To Continue As Congress MLA Until Further Orders: SC

Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court on Friday maintained status quo on its stay order and allowed Sundergarh Congress MLA Jogesh Singh to continue as the Member of the Legislative Assembly until further orders.

The directive of the apex court came while hearing petition filed by Sahadeb Xaxa and Ajay Patel.

The court, however, issued notice to Singh to reply to the counter filed by Xaxa and Patel on submission of false and fabricated caste certificate with a declaration that he belongs to the ‘Bhuyan’ tribe in the affidavit during filing of nomination papers as a Congress candidate for Sundargarh Assembly constituency in 2014.

It may be recalled that the apex court on February 13 this year had stayed the order of the Orissa High Court and allowed Singh to continue as the Member of the Legislative Assembly until further orders.

A division bench of the apex court, comprising Justice AK Sikri and Ashok Bhusan, had issued the interim order after hearing the counter from former Union Minister and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal and senior lawyer of Orissa High Court Pitambar Acharya on behalf of Singh.

With this order, Singh would continue as the MLA of Sundargarh Assembly constituency which is reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidate.

“The High Court had declared the election of Jogesh Singh as null and void citing unavailability of evidence in support of his scheduled tribe (ST) caste status in his affidavit. But the division bench of the apex court nullified the order while terming the judgment as unlawful and issued an interim stay,” Acharya had told mediapersons.

The Orissa High Court on January 30 had declared the election of Singh as Congress MLA Jogesh Singh of Sundargarh Constituency null and void in response to two separate writ petitions filed by Sahadeb Xaxa, the BJP candidate who was contesting for Sundargarh Reserve Assembly seat in the Assembly elections in 2014, and Ajay Patel, a voter.

The duo in their petitions had alleged that Singh had submitted false and fabricated caste certificate with a declaration that he belongs to the ‘Bhuyan’ tribe.

Challenging the High Court order, Singh had moved the Supreme Court.