The Supreme Court will on Friday hear Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan's plea challenging the rejection of her nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh.
A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and comprising Justice AS Chandurkar, agreed to list the matter for hearing on Friday, June 12, after Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the senior Congress leader, made an oral mention seeking urgent hearing in the case.
Dr Singhvi submitted to the court that the matter would be heard either today or tomorrow, as he clarified that today was the last day to withdraw nominations. He also requested the Court to pass an order restraining the declaration of results.
Dr Singhvi submitted that the Returning Officer had rejected Natarajan’s nomination for alleged suppression of a criminal case.
He also pointed out that no cognisance had been taken in the said case and only a pre-cognisance summons under Section 223 BNSS had been served on her. "Under Section 33A of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, only those criminal cases where cognisance has been taken are required to be disclosed," he argued.
Singhvi said there was no criminal case pending against Natarajan that she was mandated to disclose in her nomination papers. He said the Returning Officer (RO) had exceeded his authority and acted arbitrarily in rejecting her nomination.
"The Representation of People's Act has a section 33A which states that you have to disclose only those cases which have a punishment of over two years, but above all, only those cases in which charges have been framed," he said.
Singhvi said Natarajan had only received a notice to come to the court to inform it why cognisance should not be taken, which means the notice was received before any cognisance was taken. "You rejected Natarajan's nomination on non-existence of cognisance, which means that there is no criminal case that she could have disclosed," Singhvi said.
"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 Commisison, 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 bench said.
Earlier in the morning, Natarajan moved the top court against her nomination being rejected.
Elections for the three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh will be held on June 18.
June 8 was the last date for filing nominations and scrutiny of papers began on Tuesday.
(With inputs from PTI)