Reprieve for Sadique as SC stays his disqualification from Punjab House

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Punjab and Haryana high court order of disqualifying Mohammad Sadique as Bhadaur MLA.A division bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre also allowed Sadique to participate in the Vidhan Sabha proceedings. He, however, can't vote in the House.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Punjab and Haryana high court order of disqualifying Mohammad Sadique as Bhadaur MLA.A division bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre also allowed Sadique to participate in the Vidhan Sabha proceedings. He, however, can't vote in the House.

The high court had disqualified Sadique on April 7 this year following a petition filed by Akali candidate Darbara Singh Guru in 2012, challenging his election. Guru had pleaded that being a Muslim, Sadique was not qualified to contest the election from the constituency reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

The high court had set aside Sadique's election holding that at the time of election he was a Muslim and not competent to contest from an SC reserved seat. Submitting that the high court had overlooked various "material facts" in the case, Sadique had approached the Supreme Court in May.