New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday restrained the Election Commission from holding byelections until further orders for the 10 Lok Sabha seats, which fell vacant following the expulsion of 10 MPs caught on camera in a `cash for query' scam.

A Bench consisting of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice C.K. Thakker passed the order on an application filed by the Commission. The court already referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench an important question of law whether Parliament had the powers to expel a member for reasons other than those mentioned in the Constitution.

On Monday, counsel S. Murlidhar said the Commission wanted to hold the byelections for the 10 seats in six States on May 8, during the last phase of the Assembly elections in five States. As the vacancies were notified on December 23, 2005, the byelections had to be held before June 22, 2006 to meet the constitutional requirement.

Attorney-General Milon K. Banerjee said the vacancies should be filled at the earliest.

However, the Bench said that as the matter was to be heard at length, holding of elections in the meantime would cause a financial burden and confusion.

It directed that the application be lifted for further hearing in July.

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