The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s plea challenging the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination from Madhya Pradesh.
The bench held that courts cannot intervene in an ongoing election process and directed her to pursue an election petition after the polls conclude.
A division bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar ruled that established legal principles prohibit judicial interference while elections are underway. The court noted that the Returning Officer rejected Natarajan’s nomination for filing an incomplete Form 26 affidavit and failing to disclose a pending complaint case in Telangana.
The bench observed that Natarajan had filed written submissions in the complaint proceedings and therefore had knowledge of the case. It also recorded that she had approached the Election Commission and argued her case in person before the full panel on June 10, but no order was passed on her representation.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Natarajan, argued that Article 329(b) did not bar her petition since it sought transparency, not obstruction. He contended that the rejection was illegal because no cognisance or charges had been framed in the case.
The Election Commission and other respondents opposed the plea, asserting that the right to contest is statutory and that challenges to nomination rejection must be made through election petitions.
Citing the landmark Ponnuswami judgment and subsequent precedents, the bench reaffirmed that judicial intervention during elections violates the constitutional scheme. It concluded that Natarajan’s remedy lies only in filing an election petition after the process ends.
