SC Dismisses Congress Leader Meenakshi Natarajan's Challenge To Rajya Sabha Nomination Rejection

New Delhi: Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan has suffered a major setback from the Supreme Court. The apex court dismissed the plea challenging rejection of her Rajya Sabha candidature from Madhya Pradesh, stating that it cannot interfere. A bench of Justices PK Mishra and Chandurkar delivered this ruling. 

What did the court say?

A bench comprising Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice AS Chandurkar declined the exercise of its writ jurisdiction citing the Constitutional bar as per Article 329.

“If the Court accepts such arguments to find out glaring cases which are required to be interfered under Article 32/226, and the other sets of cases, where the rejection is not so improper prima facie to relegate them to election petitions, this Court would be reading some principle which is not provided for under Article 329. We are afraid that any such interpretation that in some of the matters this Court can interfere while leaving some others to avail the remedy of the election tribunal cannot be encouraged,” the court said.

What did Supreme Court say to Meenakshi?

The Supreme Court stated that Meenakshi Natarajan can approach the High Court through an election petition. Singhvi claimed that the case dates back to 2022, when Meenakshi was not in charge of Telangana. The matter had not even been taken cognizance of. The case relates to a private complaint filed in a Telangana court regarding an internal party matter in 2022. The court only issued a preliminary civil show-cause notice to Natarajan before taking actual cognizance of any offense. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued on behalf of Meenakshi that if the Returning Officer acts arbitrarily and benefits one party, the court can intervene. Singhvi questioned why the results were declared on the last day for withdrawal of nominations. However, the Supreme Court did not agree with his arguments and dismissed his client Meenakshi's petition. 

What about the case?

Hearing a petition challenging the rejection of Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections, the Supreme Court on Friday said that once a candidate's nomination is rejected by the Returning Officer, she has no other recourse but to approach the Election Commission of India for relief. The court also asked Natarajan if she could produce any judgment in which the court had intervened in such cases.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S. Chandurkar said that no matter how flawed the decision, once a nomination is rejected, a remedy is generally available elsewhere. Is there any decision of this court in which we have interfered at this stage? Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Natarajan, argued that a candidate is required to declare only those criminal cases which carry a minimum sentence of two years. He said that in the present case, only summons were issued.

What did Singhvi say?

Singhvi said Natarajan's nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh were wrongly rejected by the Returning Officer for not disclosing a criminal case under the Representation of the People Act. The order by Rajya Sabha Returning Officer Arvind Sharma stated that after examining the available documents, it was found that Natarajan had not mentioned a court complaint in Form 26 filed along with his nomination and thus submitted an incomplete affidavit.

What was the matter?

According to an official of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, ruling BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat had complained to the returning officer that Natarajan had not mentioned a case registered against her in Telangana in her affidavit. Based on this, the returning officer cancelled Meenakshi Natarajan's candidacy.