New Delhi: Congress stalwart former MP and AICC Telangana President Meenakshi Natarajan's plea to reinstate her candidature in Rajya Sabha elections got rejected by the Supreme Court, reports suggest. Natarajan was nominated by Congress for the Rajya Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh. During scrutiny of nomination papers, the Returning Officer (RO) rejected her nomination.
The rejection stems from Form 26 which notes a candidate must be disclosing criminal cases and other information. A BJP objection alleged that Natarajan had not disclosed a legal matter pending in Telangana. According to the objection filed by the BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat, she failed to fully reveal details of a complaint/case mentioned in her affidavit. The Returning Officer accepted this objection and rejected her nomination.
While reacting to the dismissal, the Congress argued that the case which she forgot to mention in the affidavit is only a mere private complaint and not a criminal charge, making it not applicable in Form 26. Congress urged the Election Commission (EC) to withdraw the rejection calling the poll body's decision unlawful. Previous day, a delegation of senior Congress leaders including KC Venugopal, Deepa Das Munshi and others met the Election Commission (EC) demanding a withdrawal in their decision.
Natarajan approached the Supreme Court seeking immediate intervention, but the SC dismissed the plea stating the court cannot interfere in the early stages of election and the final decision lies in the hands of the Election Commission. "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? stated the bench comprising Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar
