SC to hear Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan's plea against rejection of RS candidature on Friday
Natarajan's candidature was rejected on June 9 by Returning Officer and Madhya Pradesh Assembly Principal Secretary following objections raised by BJP leaders Mahesh Kewat and Rahul Kothari
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s petition challenging the rejection of her nomination from Madhya Pradesh for the June 18 Rajya Sabha election.
A Bench led by Justice PK Mishra said it will take up the matter on Friday after senior counsel AM Singhvi mentioned the matter for urgent listing even if it wondered if it was maintainable as generally courts didn’t interfere in election matters.
Singhvi said the Returning Officer rejected her nomination on the ground of suppression of a criminal case. He, however, argued that there was no cognizance taken over the criminal case in question and only a pre-cognizance summons has been served upon her.
He sought to emphasise that Section 33A of the Representation of the People Act required only criminal cases in which cognizance has been taken to be disclosed at the time of filing of nomination papers.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Dama Seshadri Naidu, representing a rival candidate and the Election Commission, respectively, objected to Singhvi’s submissions and questioned the maintainability of the petition, saying they had not been informed or served copies of the petition.
A former Lok Sabha MP from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, Natarajan is currently the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Telangana.
Natarajan's candidature was rejected on June 9 by Returning Officer and Madhya Pradesh Assembly Principal Secretary Arvind Sharma following objections raised by BJP leaders Mahesh Kewat (a BJP Rajya Sabha candidate) and Rahul Kothari who alleged that her election affidavit did not disclose details of a case pending before an Additional Judicial Magistrate in Hyderabad.
The complaint filed by former Congress worker A Srilatha in 2025 made allegations of molestation against a man and accused Natarajan and others of failing to take action as senior party functionaries despite repeated complaints.
The Returning Officer's order noted that Natarajan had responded to a notice issued by a Hyderabad court in October 2025 but did not mention the matter in Form 26 submitted with her nomination papers. Sharma rejected her candidature holding that her affidavit was incomplete.
Congress contended that the rejection was legally unsustainable as no criminal case existed against Natarajan since no court has yet taken cognisance of the private complaint filed against her and that a pre-cognisance notice did not constitute a pending criminal case requiring mandatory disclosure.
However, BJP leaders told the Returning Officer that the Supreme Court’s guidelines on mandatory disclosure required all candidates to declare pending criminal cases in their affidavits accompanying nomination papers and that Natarajan's non-disclosure went against the top court’s mandatory guidelines.
The rejection of Natrajan’s nomination papers effectively ruled out Congress from the contest for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh up for June 18 Rajya Sabha elections.
