New Delhi, May 14 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Madras High Court order that had restrained Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) MLA-elect Sreenivasa Sethupathi from participating in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, including in the confidence motion moved by chief minister Vijay, terming the high court's intervention in an election dispute as "atrocious" and legally unsustainable.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi suspended the operation of the high court's interim order and stayed further proceedings before the high court, observing that the writ petition itself ought not to have been entertained in view of the constitutional scheme governing election disputes.

The Supreme Court's intervention came even a...