Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan has approached the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of her nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 18.
Natarajan’s candidature was rejected on June 9 by the Returning Officer and Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Principal Secretary Arvind Sharma following objections raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Rajya Sabha candidate Mahesh Kewat and the party’s State General Secretary Rahul Kothari.
The dispute centred on an alleged failure by Natarajan to disclose details of proceedings pending before a court in Hyderabad in her nomination affidavit filed in Form 26. According to the Returning Officer’s order, Natarajan had received and responded to a notice issued by a Hyderabad court in October 2025. However, the details of that matter were not disclosed in the affidavit accompanying her nomination papers.
The RO concluded that the affidavit was incomplete due to the omission and held that the non-disclosure amounted to a violation of the mandatory disclosure requirements governing election nominations. On this basis, her nomination was rejected.
BJP contended before the Returning Officer that the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on electoral transparency required candidates to make full disclosure of all pending criminal cases in their nomination affidavits. It was argued that Natarajan’s omission amounted to suppression of material information and rendered her nomination invalid.
The Congress, however, maintained that the rejection was legally unsustainable. It argued that no criminal case was pending against Natarajan in the eyes of law because the competent court had not yet taken cognisance of the private complaint. According to the party, the issuance of a pre-cognisance notice does not amount to the institution of a criminal proceeding that would trigger a mandatory disclosure obligation under election law.
The rejection of Natarajan’s nomination has significant political implications, as it effectively removes the Congress from the contest for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh. Natarajan is a former Member of Parliament from Mandsaur and currently serves as the All India Congress Committee’s in-charge for Telangana.
The post Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan moves Supreme Court challenging rejection of Rajya Sabha nomination appeared first on India Legal.