New Delhi, June 12 (IANS). The Supreme Court will on Friday hear Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s petition challenging the rejection of her nomination papers for the Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections.
The vacation bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Atul S Chandurkar on Thursday assured an early hearing on Friday on the request of senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Natarajan, for immediate listing of the case.
Referring to the case, Singhvi said that Thursday was the last date for withdrawal of nominations. He argued that if the matter is not heard immediately, the petitioner will have to wait for six years to get effective relief.
He also urged the Supreme Court to stay the declaration of election results until the dispute is resolved. However, the bench led by Justice Mishra refused to pass any interim order in the matter and said the matter would be heard on Friday.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Returning Officer, and senior advocate DS Naidu, appearing for the Election Commission, opposed the plea for immediate intervention.
Let us inform that the Congress leader has moved the Supreme Court against the rejection of his nomination paper by the Returning Officer following objections from the BJP.
According to the objection, Natarajan allegedly did not give details of a case pending in a Telangana court in the affidavit filed with his nomination papers.
The BJP’s objection was based on a petition filed by former corporate executive A Srilatha in the Fourth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court of Hyderabad. The petition alleged that Natarajan had given political patronage to Kumbham Shivakumar Reddy. Srilatha had accused Reddy of molestation and criminal intimidation.
At the same time, Natarajan has rejected the allegations and called them part of a political conspiracy and has opposed Srilatha’s petition in the Hyderabad court.
Earlier, the Congress leader had alleged that the returning officers were influenced and were working at the behest of the government.
The Congress leader, who was the party’s only Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh, claimed that an attempt was being made to weaken democracy by rejecting her nomination. He also launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led central government, alleging that the returning officers were acting as spokespersons of the ruling party rather than independent constitutional officers.
–IANS
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