FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. is back on the job.

A Window Rock judge issued a permanent injunction late Monday against a Tribal Council resolution that placed Shirley on leave, saying lawmakers acted outside of their authority in passing it, according to attorneys in the case. A council spokesman said an appeal is likely.

The ruling came on the eve of an election in which Navajos will vote on reducing the number of tribal lawmakers from 88 to 24 and giving the president line-item veto authority.

Lawmakers voted 48-22 in late October to place Shirley on administrative leave, pending an investigation into so-far unsubstantiated allegations of ethical and criminal wrongdoing involving two companies that held tribal contracts. Navajo Attorney General Louis Denetsosie has recommended the appointment of a special prosecutor for further investigation.

Some Navajos believed that Shirley being placed on leave was in retaliation for his spearheading the ballot initiatives. Shirley is in his second term as president of the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation, the country’s largest Indian reservation.

Attorneys for Shirley sought a retraining order that would block the council resolution from being enforced. They argued that the council failed to follow proper legislative procedures, denied Shirley of due process rights and the Navajo people of their right to their elected leader.

“I’m confident that the court made its ruling for the right reasons, and in a legally sound manner,” said Benjamin Runkle, among about a handful of attorneys representing Shirley. “I have no doubt if there is an appeal, the outcome will be the same.”

Speaking to about 20 supporters at the tribal headquarters in Window Rock on Monday night, Shirley thanked them for their continued support and encouragement through troubled and challenging times.

“I knew when it transpired that it wasn’t right, and I kind of suspected the judge was going to rule in the way she did,” he said.

Council spokesman Joshua Lavar Butler said the decision likely will be appealed to the Navajo Nation Supreme Court. In no way does the judge’s ruling dismiss the allegations against Shirley and other members of the executive branch, Butler said.

“The evidence is there, and the council felt that they needed to remove him for a reason,” he said. “And if this takes going through another channel to do it, they may very well take a different route.”

Navajo Vice President Ben Shelly had been filling in for Shirley while he was on leave. He made few changes in staffing, other than to fire Shirley’s chief of staff, Patrick Sandoval.

Shirley responded Monday night that “to me, he’s never left. He’s always been our chief.”

Six others besides Shirley are targeted as part of the investigation into wrongdoing, including Sandoval and the directors of the tribe’s divisions of economic development, community development and public safety.

The reports outlining the allegations were produced by investigators hired by the council and have not been made public.

Denetsosie had warned the council that the legislation to place Shirley on leave likely would be contested in the tribal courts due to the lack of due process. In the same memo to the council and Speaker Lawrence Morgan, Denetsosie wrote that there is only “scant” evidence in the reports that Shirley engaged in criminal conduct.

Butler noted that the investigators did not have subpoena power.

“A lot of the information they gathered was on a voluntary basis,” he said. “Who knows what else is going to be uncovered once a special prosecutor looks into it.”