‘Completely egregious, blatant’: Congress approaches EC over Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination rejection

Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Natarajan’s nomination was rejected “on the non-existence of even cognisance, which means there is no criminal case, which she could have disclosed”.

The row over the rejection of the nomination of Meenakshi Natarajan, the Congress candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, intensified Wednesday, as a party delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, and other commissioners.

The Congress delegation submitted that no court had yet taken cognisance of a private complaint against Natarajan, and that the returning officer’s (RO) order disqualifying her should therefore be withdrawn by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Congress leaders said that if ECI doesn’t pass an order correcting the RO’s mistake by Wednesday evening, the party will approach the court and seek an urgent hearing.

Natarajan’s nomination was rejected after BJP state general secretary Rahul Kothari filed an objection, alleging that she had failed to fully disclose details of a case in the affidavit submitted with her nomination papers.

After giving a “detailed representation” to ECI, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “An order (RO’s) akin to writing two plus two is equal to seven, not five. Why do I say so? The Election Commission’s own law, the Representation of the People Act, has Section 33A, which requires you to disclose… this is a requirement for disclosure only. You have to disclose only those cases with a punishment of more than two years, and above all, only those cases where charges have been framed. The process of framing charges is a judicial process. A judge frames charges.”

Singhvi said the “private complaint may be baseless, may have no legs to stand on”. “There is no criminal case merely, if I alleged something against somebody else, without a cognisance taken,” he added.

He said that Natarajan’s nomination was rejected “on the non-existence of even cognisance, which means there is no criminal case, which she could have disclosed”. “But you have done it at the first stage, where the section, which I have just read for you, 33A says that after cognisance, if it is taken, there will be an investigation. After investigation, there will be a chargesheet, which is not enough. The section says after the chargesheet, the judge must frame charges; had the judge reached the stage of framing charges, she would have been obliged to disclose,” he said.

He said that the delegation pointed out to the Election Commission that they have a huge reservoir of powers under Article 324.” “It is a constitutional power; it is an uncircumscribed power. It is inherent power; it is power to do justice and power to right wrongs. If an RO improperly throws out a nomination paper… Nobody has to wait to go to court, nobody has to file an election petition and waste 3-4-5-6 years. The main body, which has Article 324, is sitting here, and that reservoir of powers to do corrective justice must be exercised by them immediately; that is what we have asked,” he said.

The senior Congress leader said ECI has sufficient time to take action against the RO’s order. “This is a completely egregious, blatant, patently unlawful, without law order, and it should be set aside immediately, it is our request,” he added.

Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More

The row over the rejection of the nomination of Meenakshi Natarajan, the Congress candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, intensified Wednesday, as a party delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, and other commissioners.

The Congress delegation submitted that no court had yet taken cognisance of a private complaint against Natarajan, and that the returning officer’s (RO) order disqualifying her should therefore be withdrawn by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Congress leaders said that if ECI doesn’t pass an order correcting the RO’s mistake by Wednesday evening, the party will approach the court and seek an urgent hearing.

Natarajan’s nomination was rejected after BJP state general secretary Rahul Kothari filed an objection, alleging that she had failed to fully disclose details of a case in the affidavit submitted with her nomination papers.

After giving a “detailed representation” to ECI, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “An order (RO’s) akin to writing two plus two is equal to seven, not five. Why do I say so? The Election Commission’s own law, the Representation of the People Act, has Section 33A, which requires you to disclose… this is a requirement for disclosure only. You have to disclose only those cases with a punishment of more than two years, and above all, only those cases where charges have been framed. The process of framing charges is a judicial process. A judge frames charges.”

Singhvi said the “private complaint may be baseless, may have no legs to stand on”. “There is no criminal case merely, if I alleged something against somebody else, without a cognisance taken,” he added.

He said that Natarajan’s nomination was rejected “on the non-existence of even cognisance, which means there is no criminal case, which she could have disclosed”. “But you have done it at the first stage, where the section, which I have just read for you, 33A says that after cognisance, if it is taken, there will be an investigation. After investigation, there will be a chargesheet, which is not enough. The section says after the chargesheet, the judge must frame charges; had the judge reached the stage of framing charges, she would have been obliged to disclose,” he said.

He said that the delegation pointed out to the Election Commission that they have a huge reservoir of powers under Article 324.” “It is a constitutional power; it is an uncircumscribed power. It is inherent power; it is power to do justice and power to right wrongs. If an RO improperly throws out a nomination paper… Nobody has to wait to go to court, nobody has to file an election petition and waste 3-4-5-6 years. The main body, which has Article 324, is sitting here, and that reservoir of powers to do corrective justice must be exercised by them immediately; that is what we have asked,” he said.

The senior Congress leader said ECI has sufficient time to take action against the RO’s order. “This is a completely egregious, blatant, patently unlawful, without law order, and it should be set aside immediately, it is our request,” he added.