Parmod KumarNew Delhi, June 12 -- The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed as not maintainable the plea filed by Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan challenging the rejection of her nomination papers for the biennial Rajya Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh by the Returning Officer, holding that courts cannot interfere once the election process has commenced.
Referring to Article 329(b) of the Constitution, which bars judicial interference in the electoral process after its commencement until its completion, a Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar observed in its order, "Whenever an attempt has been made to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 32, or that of the High Courts under Article 226, during the ...