Congress Leader Meenakshi Natarajan Moves Supreme Court
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Ms Natarajan, urged the top court to consider the unlisted mentioning of her plea on the ground that the nomination paper was wrongly rejected by the returning officer citing alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case under the Representation of People Act
NEW DELHI: After getting no relief and reply from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Congress on Thursday knocked the doors of the Supreme Court and filed a plea relating to rejection of nomination of Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh. The apex court will hear the matter on Friday.
A partial working day bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar, however, also asked how the petition was maintainable in the midst of the ongoing electoral process.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Ms Natarajan, urged the top court to consider the unlisted mentioning of her plea on the ground that the nomination paper was wrongly rejected by the returning officer citing alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case under the Representation of People Act.
An order by the Rajya Sabha Election Returning Officer Arvind Sharma stated that it was found after examining available documents that Ms Natarajan submitted an incomplete affidavit, omitting a court complaint in Form 26 submitted with her nomination.
According to reports, the ruling BJP candidate, Mahesh Kewat, filed a complaint with the returning officer alleging that Ms Natarajan had not mentioned in her affidavit a case registered against her in Telangana.
Mr Singhvi argued that a candidate is supposed to disclose a criminal case which provides for a minimum sentence of two years and, in the present matter, only summons were issued.
"Is this maintainable," Justice Mishra asked, adding that the proper recourse is to file an election petition.
Senior advocate D. S. Naidu, appearing for the Election Commission, opposed the mentioning of the plea and said the poll panel was not served with the copy of the petition.
"List it tomorrow subject to clearing of defects," the top court said.
Elections for the three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh were slated to be held on June 18. While the last date for filing nominations was June 8, scrutiny of papers began on Tuesday. However, on Thursday, all three BJP candidates - Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agrawal and Mahesh Kewat - were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha by the Returning Officer.
