Meenakshi Natarajan
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday told Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan that for a candidate, whose nomination is rejected by the returning officer (RO), the only remedy is to approach the Election Commission, PTI reported.A two-judge bench asked her counsel to cite a single instance where the Supreme Court had intervened in a case involving the rejection of a candidate’s nomination papers.”However erroneous the decision may be, once a nomination is rejected, the remedy ordinarily lies elsewhere. Is there any judgment of this Court where we have interfered at that stage?” the bench of Justices PK Mishra and AS Chandurkar said.Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Natarajan, submitted that a candidate is required to disclose only criminal cases carrying a minimum sentence of two years, and in the present matter, only summons had been issued.Singhvi argued that Natarajan’s nomination paper for the Rajya Sabha election in Madhya Pradesh was wrongly rejected by the RO on the grounds of alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case under the Representation of the People Act.An order issued by Rajya Sabha Returning Officer Arvind Sharma stated that, after examining the available documents, Natarajan was found to have submitted an incomplete affidavit by omitting a court complaint in Form 26 filed along with her nomination. According to a Madhya Pradesh Assembly official, BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat had filed a complaint with the Returning Officer alleging that Natarajan failed to disclose a case registered against her in Telangana.The rejection of her nomination ultimately resulted in the BJP winning all three Rajya Sabha seats that fell vacant in Madhya Pradesh.
