Supreme Court dismisses Meenakshi Natarajan’s plea against rejection of Rajya Sabha candidature

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.

First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.

Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.

Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers

Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there

The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.

Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan (centre) speaks as party leader Jitu Patwari, right, looks on during a party briefing at AICC office, in New Delhi, on June 12, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI

Observing that courts should ordinarily refrain from intervening in ongoing electoral processes, the Supreme Court on Friday (June 12, 2026) dismissed Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s plea challenging the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination papers from Madhya Pradesh.

A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and A.S. Chandurkar observed that, in view of Article 329(b) of the Constitution, it 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. The provision stipulates that no election to either House of Parliament or a State Legislature can be called in question except through an election petition filed in the manner prescribed by law.

“...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,” the Bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by Ms. Natarajan, the Congress’ sole candidate for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh, challenging a June 9 order of the RO and Madhya Pradesh Assembly Principal Secretary Arvind Sharma rejecting her nomination on the ground that she had failed to disclose a pending criminal case in Hyderabad in her election affidavit.

Meanwhile, BJP candidates Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agrawal and Mahesh Kewat were declared elected unopposed to the three Rajya Sabha seats from the State on Thursday.

The Bench held that recognising an exception for “glaring” or “patent” errors in the rejection of nomination papers would amount to reading into Article 329 a “principle” that does not exist. It noted that such an approach would