The Supreme Court today refused to accord an urgent hearing to Congress leader Hardik Patel’s plea challenging the Gujarat High Court order rejecting stay on his conviction in the 2015 Vispur rioting case.

The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra. The bench also comprising Justices M M Shantanagoudar and Navin Sinha told the counsel for Patel that there was no urgency in hearing the matter as the high court order was passed in August last year.

Patel had started preparations to contest from Jamnagar on a Congress ticket after joining the party on March 12th and the last date for filing of nominations is April 4th.

Patel had moved the Supreme Court seeking an ex-parte stay of his conviction in the 2015 Vispur rioting case, saying the FIRs lodged against him by the ruling BJP in Gujarat were an effort to “suppress the voice of the masses”.