Kerala High Court rejects plea by BJP candidates challenging rejection of nomination papers

The Kerala High Court has reportedly declined to interfere in petitions moved by two BJP leaders, N Haridas and Nivedida Subramanian, challenging the rejection of their nomination papers by Returning Officers for the constituencies of Thalassery and Guruvayoor. .Justice N Nagresh pronounced the order this afternoon. The Judge had held a special sitting in the matter on Sunday (yesterday) after the petitioners moved the Court urgently, pointing out that the final list would be published on Monday afternoon after 3 pm, i.e. the time for withdrawal of nominations. .Kerala High Court holds sitting on Sunday, seeks response from Election Commission on plea by 2 BJP candidates against rejection of nomination .BJP Kannur District President, N Haridas is contesting from Thalassery constituency while Mahila Morcha State President, advocate Nivedida Subramanian is the candidate from Guruvayoor. Their nominations were rejected on the ground that it did not have the signature of the party's State President..Senior Advocate S Sreekumar for Haridas and Senior Advocate K Ramkumar for Subramanian were among the counsel who appeared. .The petitioners' counsel had argued that the defects cited to reject the nomination papers were not fatal, that there were other candidates from other constituencies who were granted more time to rectify such defects and that there were double standards and discrimination meted out to the two BJP leaders. They added that this plea is meant to subserve and advance the conduct of elections. As such, the Court can interfere in the matter, it was argued. .The Election Commission had challenged the maintainability of the petition during submissions yesterday, citing the bar under Article 329B of the Constitution. It was argued by the poll body that the matter can only be moved through an election petition and, that too, after the elections. .The Court yesterday declined to grant the petitioners interim relief in the case, before posting the matter for further hearing at 12 pm today. This afternoon, the Court ruled that it will not interfere in the case. .Kerala is going to polls on April 6.