Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s plea against rejection of Rajya Sabha candidature dismissed

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition by Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan challenging the rejection of her candidature for the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and AS Chandurkar declined to exercise its writ jurisdiction, citing Article 329 of the Constitution. The provision bars courts from interfering in electoral matters, and says that any polls to either House of Parliament can only be challenged through an election petition.

Election petitions can be filed for inquiring into the validity of a poll. These pleas must be filed in the High Court of the particular state in which the poll was conducted

However, the bench allowed the Congress leader to file an election petition. The bench also clarified that it was not commenting on the merits of the case.

The court did not accept Natarajan’s argument that writ jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution could be invoked to deal with “glaring and manifest” errors in the rejection of the nomination, Live Law reported. The court said that if it were to do so, it would lead to the reading of a principle that does not exist in Article 329.

Article 32 guarantees citizens the right to move the Supreme Court directly to enforce their fundamental rights.

Natarajan was the...

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