Hyderabad: On the same day the Supreme Court junked her plea challenging the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination, Congress’s Meenakshi Natarajan got a shot in the arm from a Hyderabad court in the same case that cost her.
The Rajya Sabha nomination of Natarajan, the All India Congress Committee’s Telangana in-charge, was cancelled on grounds of non-disclosure of a pending case against her in a Hyderabad court. On Friday, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court returned a petition filed by the complainant in the case, A Srilatha, for jurisdictional reasons.
The magistrate said the court will not entertain the petition because the accused and respondents were former or current public representatives. The court asked Srilatha to file the same petition in an appropriate court.
Representing the Congress party, advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala said, “The second, third, fourth, and fifth respondents, including the general secretary, are either MLCs or present sitting MLAs. This court does not have the jurisdiction to issue a summons to us. The court accepted my contention and agreed to return the petition.”
Special courts exist across India exclusively to try criminal cases involving sitting and former Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs). These courts were established following directives from the Supreme Court to ensure speedy trials and reduce the criminalisation of politics.
The case pertained to a private complaint filed by Srilatha in September 2025 at the Nampally IV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Hyderabad.
In her written complaint, which ThePrint has accessed, Srilatha alleged that Natarajan provided political patronage to Kumbham Shivakumar Reddy, against whom Srilatha has levelled serious allegations of sexual misconduct, molestation, and death threats. She alleged that despite repeated complaints, Congress leaders in Telangana, including Meenakshi Natarajan, did not intervene to cancel Shiva Kumar Reddy’s primary membership.
Srilatha named seven Congress leaders in the complaint, among whom Meenakshi Natarajan is Respondent #4. Other key leaders include current Pradesh Congress Chief Mahesh Kumar Goud (Respondent #3) and Minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Vakati Srihari (Respondent #5). Chitten Parnika Reddy, the Narayanpet MLA, is also a respondent in the same case.
The non-disclosure of the case in Hyderabad cost the AICC leader her Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh, with the returning officer setting aside her election affidavit for not mentioning the case details.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)