The Supreme Court of India is set to deliberate tomorrow on a petition filed by Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan. The petition challenges the rejection of her nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh. A bench comprising Justice PK Mishra and Justice Atul Chandurkar will hear the matter, as indicated by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who sought an urgent listing of the case. Singhvi also requested a stay on the election results.
Justice Mishra raised a question regarding the maintainability of the plea, suggesting procedural concerns, while Senior Advocate DS Naidu, appearing for the Election Commission of India (ECI), noted that the petition had not been served to the poll body. Despite these issues, the Court has agreed to list the matter for Friday, contingent upon rectification of procedural defects.
The rejection of Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha candidature was officially executed by the returning officer and Madhya Pradesh Assembly principal secretary, Arvind Sharma, on June 9. This decision followed objections from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Rajya Sabha candidate Mahesh Kewat and BJP state general secretary Rahul Kothari. They alleged that Natarajan’s election affidavit failed to disclose a pending case in Hyderabad.
According to the returning officer’s ruling, Natarajan had received a notice from a Hyderabad court in October 2025 but did not mention this in Form 26, which was part of her nomination documents. The returning officer, therefore, deemed the affidavit incomplete, leading to the rejection of her nomination.
Congress representatives argue that the rejection is not legally tenable, as no court has officially taken cognizance of the private complaint against Natarajan, and hence, a pre-cognizance notice is not a criminal case that necessitates disclosure. Conversely, the BJP maintained that the Supreme Court’s guidelines on mandatory disclosure require candidates to declare any pending criminal cases, thereby suggesting Natarajan’s non-disclosure was a violation of these rules.
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This rejection effectively excludes the Congress party from competing for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh, which are scheduled for polling on June 18. Meenakshi Natarajan, a former Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Mandsaur and the current AICC in-charge of Telangana, stands at the center of this political and legal contention.
