Supreme Court refuses to cancel bye-election to Haryana's Karnal assembly seat

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that had upheld the conduct of a bye-election to the Karnal Assembly constituency in Haryana [Kunal Chanana vs Election Commission of India and ors]..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and PS Narasimha declined the prayer to stay the bye-poll.However, the question of whether the bye-election was necessary in view of the fact that the assembly elections are less than a year away, was kept open by the Court."Your purpose was to stall the elections, we will not allow that," Justice Kant remarked while dismissing the plea by one Kunal Chanana..The Karnal seat had fallen vacant on March 13 after the resignation of former Chief Minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar to make way for new CM Nayab Singh Saini.The petition before the High Court contended had that the poll body cannot hold bye-elections because less than a year remained for the tenure of the current Haryana Legislative Assembly. The Haryana Legislative Assembly Elections are slated to be held in October this year.The High Court on April 3 dismissed the plea challenging the Election Commission of India (ECI) decision to hold the Karnal bye-election.This led to the appeal before the top courtDuring today's hearing, the Supreme Court noted that different High Courts had divergent opinions on whether bye-polls in such cases have to be allowed or not..Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Haryana government and opposed the petition.The Court refused to interfere with the bye-polls but said that the question of law would remain open. Senior Counsel Maninder Singh and advocate Ankit Agarwal appeared for the ECI.Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for one of the candidates contesting the polls.