Natarajan moves M.P. HC over RS nomination rejection
Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan has challenged the rejection of her nomination for the Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections, after the Election Commission of India and the Supreme Court declined to grant relief at the pre-election stage.
- Meenakshi Natarajan has filed an election petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court against rejection of her nomination paper.
- The Returning Officer rejected the nomination on the ground of alleged concealment of information required in the affidavit.
- Meenakshi Natarajan approached the Election Commission of India before moving the Supreme Court and then the High Court.
- The Supreme Court declined to interfere because the election process had already begun and said Meenakshi Natarajan could file an election petition.
Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan has moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court by filing an election petition against the rejection of her nomination papers in the recent Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh. The dispute matters because it concerns the legal threshold for nomination scrutiny and the proper forum for challenging an electoral rejection after polling-related proceedings have started.
What happened
The petition challenges the decision of the Returning Officer to reject Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination in last month’s Rajya Sabha elections. According to the petition, the Returning Officer rejected the nomination on the ground that Ms. Natarajan had concealed information that was legally required in the affidavit filed with the nomination papers.
The Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha nomination dispute can be framed around the powers of the Returning Officer, the duty of disclosure in nomination affidavits, the role of the Election Commission of India, and the point at which an election dispute moves to an election petition before the High Court after the electoral process has commenced.
