New Delhi, Jun 12: Meenakshi Natarajan, Congress’ Rajya Sabha nominee, was in for another disappointment on Friday.
This time it was the Supreme Court.
The top court refused to interfere with the returning officer’s order cancelling the Congress candidate’s nomination over non-disclosure of a criminal case in Telangana.
Once nomination of a candidate is rejected by the returning officer, the top court said, the only remedy is to approach the Election Commission.
A bench of Justices PK Mishra and AS Chandurkar held that the Congress leader’s plea challenging the rejection of her nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha polls is not maintanable.
“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 top court said.
This is a prime case where the court should intervene, Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Meenakshi Natarajan, told the court.
Singhvi argued that a candidate is supposed to disclose a criminal case which provides for a minimum sentence of two years and, in the present matter, only summons were issued.
He said the nomination paper for the Rajya Sabha poll in Madhya Pradesh was wrongly rejected by the returning officer citing alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case under the Representation of People Act.
