Who has given ECI the power to decide who will be leader of a party? SC stays order delisting Kamal Nath as star campaigner for MP by-elections

The Supreme Court today stayed the October 30 order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) delisting former Madhya Chief Minister Kamal Nath as the star campaigner for the upcoming by-elections in the state. .The Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian pulled up the ECI for exceeding its powers by passing the order..Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, submitted that the "matter is infructuous now", as the campaign is over and the polls are slated to be held tomorrow. .However CJI Bobde said,."We are staying your order. Who has given the power to you delist a candidate from being a star campaigner or a leader of the party under Section 77 of the Act? We have read it."CJI SA Bobde.When Dwivedi urged the Court to not stay the order and instead call for a reply from the ECI, the Bench refused to agree. It stated that the ECI will have to a reply, and that the order will be stayed pending further orders. .Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Kamal Nath, submitted that the ECI order was passed arbitrarily as "no notice was issued to Nath for it.".In its order, the ECI had stated that Nath's star campaigner status was being revoked for "repeated violation of the Model Code of Conduct" and for "complete disregard" of warnings issued to him.According to ECI, Nath, being a leader of a political party, had repeatedly "breached ethical and dignified behaviour"..Kamal Nath had earlier been warned by the Election Commission after he used the word "item" for a woman Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate who is a former Congress leader, and among the 22 MLAs whose exit led to the collapse of his government in March.Campaigning in Dabra, he had mocked BJP's Imarti Devi, saying that the Congress candidate was a "simple person" unlike his rival, who was an "item"..In his plea, Nath states that the ECI had already passed an order on October 26 on the same complaint by the BJP and had advised the Congress leader to not use such words. However, "punishing him again" through the October 30 order is "completely in teeth of principles of fair play and res judicata", he claimed..The plea filed by Advocate-on-Record VKC Law Offices and drafted by Advocates Varun K Chopra and Gurtejpal Singh states that the October 30 order of the poll body is illegal, arbitrary, and unreasoned.."The order is passed in complete violation of basic canons of natural justice and in negation of fairplay and therefore, deserves to be quashed. Further, no notice has been issued to the Petitioner with regard to the impugned Order in complete violation of principles of natural injustice."Plea filed in Supreme Court.The petition goes on to allege that leaders of the BJP have been repeatedly making statements ex-facie in violation of the Model Code of Conduct during the period of campaigning for the by-elections. "However, no such action has been taken against such persons by the ECI," says Nath in his plea..Nath has further claimed that the Election Commission did not issue any notice to him before passing the order to take away his star campaigner status."ECI cannot arbitrarily revoke the name of Petitioner from the list of ‘star campaigners’ when the entire statutory framework of Section 77(1) of Representation of People Act, 1951 does not grant such powers to the ECI," reads the plea.