SC dismisses Natarajan’s plea against rejection of RS nomination

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the writ petition filed by Congress member Meenakshi Natarajan challenging the rejection of her Rajya Sabha candidature from Madhya Pradesh. The Supreme Court declined to interfere with the Returning Officer’s decision rejecting her nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections over the alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case in Telangana.The court underscored that allowing such petitions under Article 32 or 226 in cases of alleged “glaring errors” while relegating others to election petitions would amount to reading a principle into Article 329 of the Constitution that does not exist.
A bench comprising Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice AS Chandurkar observed that once a Returning Officer rejects a nomination paper, the statutory remedy available to an aggrieved candidate is to approach the Election Commission. The court therefore refused to grant relief and left it open for Natarajan to approach the poll panel.The bench rejected the argument of the petitioner that Article 32 can be invoked to cure "glaring and manifest" errors in the rejection of nomination.The court noted that the Returning Officer had rejected Natarajan's nomination on the ground that she had filed an incomplete Form 26 affidavit and failed to disclose a pending complaint case against her.

During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Natarajan, argued that the Returning Officer acted arbitrarily. He contended that the rejection was based on a non-existent criminal case, as no cognizance had been taken by any court. He pointed out that under Section 33A of the RP Act, candidates are required to disclose only those cases where cognizance has been taken. In this instance, Natarajan had only received a pre-cognizance summons under Section 223 of the BNSS, and no cognizance was taken, he submitted.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Madhya Pradesh and senior advocate D S Naidu for the Election Commission and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi for the returned candidate opposed the plea.