No relief to Meenakshi Natarajan from Supreme Court on rejection of Rajya Sabha nomination, petition rejected

Rahul Gandhi’s close leader and former MP Meenakshi Natarajan has not got relief from the Supreme Court in the case related to Rajya Sabha elections. The top court refused to interfere in the petition filed against the cancellation of his nomination papers and said that the normally available remedy after the nomination is rejected by the Returning Officer is to approach the Election Commission.

Justice P.K. Mishra and Justice A.S. Chandurkar’s bench held that Meenakshi Natarajan’s petition was not maintainable. The court asked senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, “No matter how wrong the decision, once a nomination is rejected the remedy usually lies elsewhere. Is there any reason for this court to interfere at this stage?”

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Meenakshi Natarajan, argued that this is a matter in which the court should intervene. He said that the candidate has to disclose only such criminal cases which have a minimum punishment of two years. According to him, only summons were issued in this case and the Returning Officer wrongly rejected the nomination papers citing the Representation of the People Act.

Meenakshi Natarajan is considered the key face of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s team and was made the party’s candidate for Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. However, during the scrutiny of his nomination papers, the allegation came to light that he did not mention a case registered in Telangana in his affidavit.

The order by Rajya Sabha election returning officer Arvind Sharma said that after examining the available documents, it was found that a court complaint was not mentioned in the Form-26 submitted by Natarajan along with the nomination, due to which the affidavit was considered incomplete.

According to an official of Madhya Pradesh Assembly, BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat had filed a complaint before the Returning Officer alleging that Meenakshi Natarajan had hidden information about the case registered in Telangana in her affidavit.

Meanwhile, BJP won all three seats unopposed in the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh.

After the Supreme Court’s decision, Meenakshi Natarajan said, “There is no disappointment and no shock.”

At the same time, Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitu Patwari termed this development as unprecedented in Indian politics and expressed concern over the state of democracy. He said in the press conference, “This is the first such case in Indian politics, where Rajya Sabha nomination has been cancelled. This has become a topic of discussion in the entire country. The question is arising in the minds of the general public whether democracy will survive in this country or is the country moving towards autocracy and dictatorship. This is an important incident, which reflects this thinking.”

At present, after the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene, the door is open to the Election Commission for further legal process for Meenakshi Natarajan.

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