New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the hearing on a plea of former union minister Maneka Gandhi who challenged the election of Samajwadi Party's Ram Bhual Nishad's from Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan deferred the matter to December 2 after asking senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Gandhi, to find out and place on record the application for condonation of delay.

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Condonation of delay refers to the discretionary power of a court to extend the prescribed time limit for filing an appeal.

Gandhi lost to Nishad by a margin of 43,174 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

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Her appeal challenged the August 14 order of the Allahabad High Court dismissing her election petition against the Nishad's election for it was time-barred.

The high court's Lucknow bench held the petition was filed after the deadline of 45 days, the statutory period for filing election petition before the high court, and therefore the plea cannot be heard on merit.

Gandhi contended that Nishad had deprived the voters of their right to know his full criminal history and thus the delay in filing the petition should be condoned.

She argued Nishad had 12 pending criminal cases against him but divulged the information of only eight in his affidavit.

Turning down Gandhi's plea, the high court had said, "This election petition being time-barred by Section 81 read with Section 86 of the Representation of People Act 1951 and Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure is liable to be dismissed."

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