MP HC Issues Notice To BJP Rajya Sabha MPs, Returning Officer On Meenakshi Natarajan's Plea
MP High Court issued notices on Meenakshi Natarajan's plea challenging the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination.
Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to all respondents, including three newly-elected BJP Rajya Sabha MPs and Returning Officer, seeking their replies on the rejection of Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination for the Upper House polls in June.
After issuing notices, a single bench of Justice B P Sharma scheduled the next hearing on Natarajan's petition on September 11.
Natarajan filed an election petition in the High Court on July 21 against the Returning Officer's decision to reject her nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh in June.
The plea stated that the Returning Officer (RO) of the election, in violation of rules, rejected Natarajan's nomination on the grounds of concealing information about a pending court case.
The petition filed on behalf of the former Congress MP stated that a Telangana court, while hearing a complaint filed by a woman, had issued summons against Natarajan.
The complaint does not contain any specific allegations against the Congress leader and that she was summoned merely because she was made a respondent in the case, argued the petition.
The petition claims the Returning Officer cancelled her nomination illegally.
Natarajan's nomination was rejected on June 9 on the ground of concealing information about the Telangana court complaint in her affidavit submitted for elections to three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh.
The order issued in this regard stated that after examining the available documents, it was found that Natarajan had submitted an incomplete affidavit by not mentioning the said court complaint in Form 26 submitted along with her nomination.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mahesh Kewat had filed a complaint with the RO alleging Natarajan had not mentioned a case filed against her in Telangana in her affidavit.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the RO cancelled the nomination of the former Lok Sabha member from Mandsaur (2009-2014).
After the rejection of Natarajan's nomination, all three BJP candidates in the fray -- Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agrawal and Mahesh Kewat -- were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on June 11.
Natarajan had earlier filed an appeal against the cancellation of her nomination before the Election Commission (EC), but after receiving no relief, she approached the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court refused to intervene in the matter on the ground the election process had already started and granted Natarajan the freedom to file an election petition. Natarajan then approached the High Court and filed an election petition.
The HC, while hearing the petition, issued notices to the three Rajya Sabha members elected from Madhya Pradesh -- Chugh, Agrawal, and Kewat -- the EC, the Principal Secretary of the state legislative Assembly and other respondents, seeking their responses.
Senior advocates Ajay Gupta and Aryan Gupta appeared on behalf of Natarajan.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
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