The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan's plea challenging the rejection of her nomination for Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh and observed that once a candidate’s nomination is rejected by a returning officer, the appropriate remedy is to approach the Election Commission.
A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar questioned whether the court could intervene at this stage and asked Natarajan to cite any precedent where such interference had taken place.
"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 said.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Natarajan, argued that candidates are required to disclose only criminal cases carrying a minimum sentence of two years and that, in the present case, only summons had been issued.
He contended that Natarajan’s nomination for the Rajya Sabha poll in Madhya Pradesh was wrongly rejected by the returning officer over alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case under the Representation of the People Act.
Returning Officer Arvind Sharma, in his order, said scrutiny of documents revealed that Natarajan had filed an incomplete affidavit and omitted details of a court complaint in Form 26 submitted along with her nomination papers.
According to a Madhya Pradesh Assembly official, BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat lodged a complaint alleging that Natarajan had failed to disclose a case registered against her in Telangana in her election affidavit.
(With inputs from PTI)
