On Friday, the Supreme Court stated that courts should avoid interfering in electoral processes as it dismissed Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s petition contesting the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination papers from Madhya Pradesh.
In view of Article 329(b) of the Constitution, court had no jurisdiction to interfere with the order of the Returning officer (RO) and that an election petition was the only remedy available in such cases, observed bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and A.S. Chandurkar.
The Bench said, “Whenever an attempt is made to invoke this court’s or the High Court’s writ jurisdiction to interject during the conduct of elections, on every occasion, the court has rejected such an attempt, keeping in view the principles contained in Article 329 of the Constitution.”
On Thursday, BJP candidates Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agrawal and Mahesh Kewat were declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha after Madhya Pradesh Assembly Principal Secretary Arvind Sharma handed over the election certificates to them promoting celebration in BJP camp.
The Congress alleged bias in the conduct of the returning officer, claiming favoritism towards the ruling party. Congress leader Jitu Patwari had sought the intervention of President Droupadi Murmu to contest the rejection of Ms. Natarajan’s nomination, but without success.
The party accused the returning officer and the ruling BJP of “seat theft," while asserting that Ms. Natarajan had neither a first information report nor any charges against her in the Telangana case, and therefore was not obligated to mention it in her election affidavit.
