KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has upheld the Election Office’s decision to revoke the candidacy of CPN (Unified Socialist) House of Representatives (HoR) candidate Raju Gurung for Rupandehi-2.

Hearing a petition filed by Gurung, a joint bench of Justices Ishwar Khatiwada and Kumar Regmi on Friday has stated that the short-term interim order issued earlier by the court will not be continued.

The apex court had on Sunday issued a short-term interim order to not implement the Election Office’s decision to revoke Gurung’s candidacy for the time being.

The Election Office for the HoR constituency issuing a statement on Tuesday had revoked Gurung’s candidacy pointing that eight cheques written by Gurung’s firm North West Infra Pvt Lt—which also has Unified Socialist leader Jhala Nath Khanal’s son Nirvik Khanal as a promoter— had dishonored and the court had fined Gurung Rs 2,000 for banking offense.

The case was first assigned to the bench of Justice Hari Phuyal but the hearing was canceled on request of Gurung’s lawyers.

A single bench of Justice Bishwambhar Shrestha hearing the case on Sunday issued the short-term interim order to not immediately implement the decision to revoke Gurung’s candidacy.

The SC had also invited both the sides for discussion on Wednesday.