The Supreme Court Monday directed that Gujarat's Dwarka assembly seat should not be declared vacant and admitted a plea by senior BJP leader Pabubha Manek challenging his disqualification as an MLA from there.
The top court however refused to stay the April 12 order of the Gujarat High Court which had set aside the election of Manek for submitting a defective nomination form and ordered by-election for the seat.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said that considering the matter relates to the dispute of validity of nomination filed, it would hear the appeal in September, 2019.