The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the decision of the Election Commission to cancel the candidacy of Raju Gurung, a common candidate of the Nepali Congress-led alliance in Rupandehi-2.

With the decision, Gurung’s candidacy has been scrapped, benefiting CPN-UML vice-chair Bishnu Poudel, who is contesting from the same constituency.

“Since a blacklisted person cannot be a candidate for the above-mentioned [House of Representatives] polls, it is not possible to issue an interim order as demanded,” the Supreme Court said in its decision. “Therefore, there is no need to give continuity to the interlocutory interim order issued by this court on October 16.”

A division bench of justices Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada and Kumar Regmi on Friday rejected Gurung’s demand citing Section 13(h) of the House of Representatives Election Act 2017 that restricts any aspirants from contesting a poll if they are blacklisted.

On October 16, a single bench of justice Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha had issued the interlocutory interim order not to implement the decision of the Election Commission until the court issued its final decision.

Gurung, a leader of the CPN (Unified Socialist) had filed the writ petition on October 13 demanding an interim order against the defendants including Election Commission, Nepal Rastra Bank and the Election Officer in Rupandehi-2. He had argued that the election office in the constituency had no right to cancel his candidacy.