In a setback for the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the state law providing that a candidate aspiring to contest the panchayat elections should have cleared the class 10 examination.

A bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre stayed the operation of the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, passed by the state assembly on September 7, after the petition challenging the amended law was mentioned before the court.

While staying operation of the amended provision providing for educational qualifications for contesting local body’s elections, the court also issued notice to Haryana government and the Election Commission.

Under the amended law, a person from the general category should have passed the class 10 examinations and a Dalit should have passed class 8 to be eligible to contest local body’s elections.

The court was moved by the Communist Party of India-Marxist’’s woman wing, the All India Democratic Women Association, Rajbala and others.

The court order came after senior counsel Sanjay Parikh and Kirti Singh appearing for the petition mentioned the matter before the court.