The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay the Election Commission's notification allowing None of the Above (NOTA) in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat. The polling will be on August 8.

A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, however, agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the August 1 notification of the EC allowing the NOTA option.

"Issue notice. We will examine it. We are not going to stay the proceedings," the bench said.

The bench also questioned the petitioner, Gujarat Congress chief whip, Shailesh Manubhai Parmar, over the delay in raising the issue.

"Why are you so late in raising the question as EC issued notification in Jan 2014?," the bench asked.  

In his plea, Parmar, asked the court to quash the notification as it violates the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

"Without a corresponding amendment in the Act and the Rules, any purported administrative action of the Election Commission of India to introduce NOTA is ex-facie illegal, arbitrary and in fact tainted with malafide," said the plea.

Elections will be held for three seats in Gujarat on August 8.

Where BJP has fielded its president Amit Shah, Union Minister Smriti Irani and ex-Congress MLA Balwantsinh Rajput,  Congress has nominated Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, Ahmed Patel for the seat.