The Supreme Court has stayed proceedings before the Orissa High Court in an election petition challenging Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo’s win in the Patnagarh constituency in the 2024 Assembly polls, The New Indian Express reported on Saturday.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued a notice to the respondent, Saroj Kumar Meher, asking him to file a response within a month. It directed that the proceedings in the High Court will be stayed in the meantime.

The dispute pertains to the 2024 Assembly elections, when Singh Deo won the Patnagarh seat.

Meher, who was the Biju Janata Dal candidate in the constituency, had approached the High Court questioning the validity of Singh Deo’s election, alleging that the nomination papers submitted by the BJP leader had been improperly accepted.

Meher claimed that Singh Deo had suppressed material information about his alleged criminal antecedents and assets in the statutory forms submitted with his nomination, Bar and Bench reported.

This was a corrupt practice under the 1951 Representation of the People Act, he alleged.

Singh Deo had sought the dismissal of the petition arguing that it did not include the required affidavits as per the election law, and lacked material facts and full details of the alleged corrupt practices.

On November 28, the High Court dismissed Singh Deo’s application, ruling that the defects were curable and allowed the election petition to continue.

The deputy chief minister then challenged the order in the Supreme Court.