The Supreme Court granted relief to Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana on Thursday by accepting her plea and overturning the Bombay High Court’s order that had annulled her caste certificate, which she had utilized to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in a reserved category seat.
Justices JK Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol formed the bench that accepted Navneet Rana’s appeal against the Bombay High Court’s decision to annul her caste certificate. The Supreme Court upheld Navneet Rana’s caste certificate, noting that the scrutiny committee had appropriately reviewed the documents presented and passed its decision.
“In light of the discussion, the instant appeals stand allowed and the HC order is set aside,” declared the Supreme Court. The Bombay High Court had annulled the caste certificate of Navneet Kaur Rana, the Member of Parliament from Amaravati, Maharashtra, on the grounds that it was secured through fraudulent means with forged documents. Additionally, the Supreme Court imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Rana.
In response, Navneet Rana stated, “Those who raised questions about my birth got an answer today. I thank the Supreme Court. The truth always wins. This is a victory for those who walk on the path shown by Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.”
Navneet Rana recently submitted her nomination for the Amravati Lok Sabha seat, conveying hope for her constituency’s resident .”I have been working for the people of my region for many years. This is a big day for me and my constituency. This is the first time that voters in Amravati are getting a chance to vote for the nation-building, development and benefit of the nation,” she stated.
“The people of my constituency are happier than me. They are happy that for the first time, the lotus symbol will appear on the ballot box. The people will directly support and vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” she further added.
Navneet Rana, elected as an independent Member of Parliament from Amravati in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, joined the BJP last week in Nagpur, with BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule presiding over the induction.
Reflecting on her initial Lok Sabha victory in Amravati, Rana stated, “In 2019, when I contested the elections as an independent, the people of Amaravati supported me despite the huge political wave and at a time when I did not do any work in my constituency, I think they had the confidence that their voice would be heard at the Parliament.”
Maharashtra, with 48 Lok Sabha seats, sends the second-largest number of legislators to the Lower House, following Uttar Pradesh. The elections for Maharashtra’s 48 parliamentary constituencies are scheduled in five phases: April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. In the 2019 elections, the BJP emerged victorious in 23 of the 25 seats it contested, and the then-unified Shiv Sena won 18 out of the 23 seats it competed for.