Rush Hour: SC dismisses Congress leader’s plea on RS poll rejection, US envoy summoned again & more

The Supreme Court dismissed a petition by Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan challenging the rejection of her candidature for the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Stating that it was not commenting on the merits of the case, the bench allowed her to file an election petition, which must be moved in the High Court.

Natarajan was the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Her nomination was rejected after the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that she had withheld information in her affidavit about a criminal case against her in Telangana.

Her lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court that she had only received a notice from a magistrate and the court in Telangana had not yet taken cognisance of the matter. This means that she was not required to disclose the matter in her nomination papers, he added. Read on.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that it had summoned the United States’ chargé d’affaires Jason Meeks for the second consecutive day to register its protest against the continued US strikes on ships with Indian crew members in West Asia. New Delhi said that it had “once again conveyed its deep concern over the use of lethal and deadly force against civilian shipping”.

Meeks had...

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