A legal challenge to the move to re-elect Mr David Trimble and Mr Mark Durkan fizzled out in the High Court yesterday.
But although Mr Justice Kerr dismissed the DUP's action, the party claimed victory after a lawyer for the Secretary of State said Dr Reid accepted he was under an obligation to propose a date for fresh Assembly elections.
The case was brought by the DUP's deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, who claimed in court papers that Dr Reid's decision to allow the Assembly to elect a First Minister and Deputy First Minister was "unlawful and without force or legal effect".
The East Belfast MP's contention was contained in his application for leave to seek a judicial review of Dr Reid's decision to allow the Assembly to reconvene at Stormont yesterday in a bid to re-elect Messrs Trimble and Durkan following last week's abortive elections.
The hearing was held up while lawyers for Dr Reid viewed a video supplied by Mr Robinson's solicitors, McBurney and Company, in which, it was claimed, the Secretary of State conceded in an interview that he realised he had a responsibility to call an election.
When the hearing got under way, Mr John Larkin, for Mr Robinson, argued that any election of a First Minister or Deputy after November 2nd was "without legal effect and cannot legally occur". His argument was based on a section of the 1998 Northern Ireland Act which requires a date for an election in the event of failure to elect a First Minister and a Deputy First Minister within the period set by the section.
That period expired at midnight on November 2nd, the court was told.
Mr Paul Maguire, for the Secretary of State, said Dr Reid accepted he was under an obligation to propose a date for an Assembly poll.
"However, the Secretary of State enjoys a degree of latitude in terms of the time in which he decides to proceed to propose a date and a discretion of the date to be fixed," he said.
This argument was accepted by Mr Justice Kerr and in dismissing the application for leave he said: "The court has been told the Secretary of State accepts in the light of events that have occurred that he is under an obligation to propose a date for the poll for the election of the next Assembly.
"It is not surprising that the Secretary of State would wish to have some time to consider when to call an election and he has a discretion on the date that any election should be held."