Supreme Court to hear tomorrow plea by Congress' Meenakshi Natarajan against rejection of Rajya Sabha candidature

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to list tomorrow the petition filed by Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan against the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination from Madhya Pradesh

The matter was mentioned before a bench of Justice PK Mishra and Justice Atul Chandurkar by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who urged the Court to list the matter on Friday and stay the declaration of results.

However, the Court questioned the maintainability of the plea.

"Is this maintainable," Justice Mishra asked.

Senior Advocate DS Naidu appeared for the ECI and said that petition copy has not been served on the poll body.

The Court eventually ordered listing of the matter on Friday subject to clearing of defects.

The polling for the seat is slated for June 18.

Natarajan's candidature was rejected by returning officer and Madhya Pradesh assembly principal secretary Arvind Sharma on June 9.

This was after objections were raised by BJP leaders including Rajya Sabha candidate Mahesh Kewat and party state general secretary Rahul Kothari. The BJP alleged that Natarajan, in her election affidavit, had failed to disclose details of a case pending before a court in Hyderabad.

According to the returning officer's order, Natarajan had responded to a notice issued by a Hyderabad court in October 2025 but did not mention the matter in Form 26 submitted with her nomination papers. The returning officer held that the affidavit was incomplete and rejected her candidature on that basis.

Congress leaders have maintained that the rejection is legally unsustainable, arguing that no criminal case exists against Natarajan since no court has yet taken cognisance of the private complaint filed against her, and that a pre-cognisance notice does not constitute a pending criminal case requiring mandatory disclosure.

On the other hand, BJP argued before the returning officer that Supreme Court guidelines on mandatory disclosure require all candidates to declare pending criminal cases in their nomination affidavits and that Natarajan's non-disclosure violated those guidelines.

The rejection effectively eliminates Congress from the contest for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh up for polling on June 18. Natarajan, a former Lok Sabha MP from Mandsaur, currently serves as AICC in-charge of Telangana.