KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court (SC) has refused to give an interim order against Election Commission’s (EC) decision to give official status to Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) Nepal’s Chairman Upendra Yadav faction.

On Wednesday, a single bench of Prakash Man Singh Raut refused to issue an interim order on the JSP’s official status dispute.

However, SC has issued a show cause order in the case. The bench also directed to conduct the hearing including the another writ petition filed by JSP’s Thakur on the same issue.

The Mahantha Thakur faction of the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) had filed a writ at the SC on July 30 against the EC decision to grant the party’s official status to the Upendra Yadav faction.

The EC had summoned all members of the 51-member JSP Executive Committee for head count to decide on the dispute – which faction is the legitimate one. As many as 34 JSP leaders sided with Yadav while 16 favored Thakur.

Earlier, the Thakur faction had also moved to the court to stop the EC’s move of doing a head count to settle the dispute but to no avail. Instead of issuing an interim order to restrict the EC from working, the SC urged both sides to sit down for talks.

Meanwhile, the EC  had decided on the authenticity and granted the official status to JSP Yadav faction.