Order rejecting Natarajan’s RS nomination is egregious; must be set aside immediately: Cong to EC

A high-level Congress delegation met the Election Commission on Wednesday, challenging the "blatantly illegal" rejection of Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination in Madhya Pradesh. The party demanded immediate reversal, warning the decision severely undermines democratic level-playing fields

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday took up with the Election Commission the issue of rejection of its Madhya Pradesh candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls, saying the order was “egregious” and should be set aside immediately.

A delegation of top party leaders, including K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek Singhvi, Vivek Tankha, Randeep Surjewala and Deepa Dasmunshi, along with Natarajan, met the Commission and demanded that the decision should be reversed.

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“This is a subversion of democracy….We still have full faith in constitutional institutions. That is why we are fighting this battle,” Natarajan told reporters after the Congress delegation met the EC officials.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Singhvi said, “This delegation made a detailed representation to the EC. We have told them and demonstrated, according to us, beyond doubt and beyond any matter of controversy, that the RO (returning officer), has passed a perverse order. An order akin to likening 2 plus 2 is equal to 7.”

“Why do I say so. The Election Commission’s own law the representation of people’s act has a section 33A which states that you have to disclose only those cases which have a punishment of over two years but above all, only those cases in which charges have been framed,” Singhvi said.

“The process of framing charges is a judicial process..you have rejected Ms Natarajan’s nomination on the non-existence of cognizance,” he said.

The Congress hopes and trust that the EC will realise that this creates a very bad, distorted and non-level playing field that strikes at the heart of democracy. A violation of that strikes further at the heart of the basic structure of the Constitution. Therefore, we have requested for an immediate decision, Singhvi said.

“We have come on the day of withdrawal (of nominations), there is sufficient time. This is a completely egregious and blatantly unlawful order, and should be set aside immediately, is our request,” the Congress MP said.

Singhvi, who also heads the legal cell of the Congress, earlier said on X that ” the decision of the Returning Officer is indeed poor and absolutely partisan.”

Singhvi said he spoke to Natarajan and several other senior Congress leaders on Tuesday after he learnt of this “most remarkable and astonishing rejection” of her nomination papers by the Returning Officer.

“This is, on the face of it, patently and blatantly illegal because no criminal case, in the eyes of the law, exists against Ms Natarajan,” he said in a video message on X.

“This is because, in a private complaint, which anyone can file against anyone, no criminal case comes into existence unless and until the magistrate or the concerned judge takes cognisance,” he said in the message.

“At the highest, in the present case, a court has only issued a notice to her on a private complaint well before that court has taken cognisance, and indeed, the issue of cognisance is yet to be decided after hearing her by that court. So, where is the question of a criminal case which she had to disclose?

“This is well established by Indian jurisprudence, including a high court judgment directly on point. It is not possible that the Returning Officer took an independent, objective, fair, and impartial stance; otherwise, there is no way in law her nomination could have been rejected,” he said.

“I hope and trust that the Election Commission in Delhi, the central body, will exercise its inherent, administrative, and superior powers to reverse this decision or order. Otherwise, it would be a very serious violation of the level-playing-field principle. It would create a highly skewed system in a democratic election, thereby affecting democracy and the basic structure itself,” Singhvi said.

“There is still time, since today is the last day for withdrawal. No one can, and should, in a true democracy, be denied even the right to nominate oneself for the Rajya Sabha in this manner,” he said.