The Supreme Court today stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order disqualifying five state MLAs of Haryana Janhit Congress for joining the ruling Congress party and the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.

A Bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and S S Nijjar stayed the December 20, 2011 judgement of the High court on a Special Leave Petition, SLP filed by the Haryana Assembly Speaker and some of the aggrieved MLAs, questioning the verdict.

The apex court while staying the direction, sought the stands of the Election Commission of India and Haryana Janhit Congress, HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi on the SLP. The High court had earlier ordered interim disqualification of the MLAs and had quashed the order passed by the Speaker recognising HJC's merger with the ruling Congress party.