Chloé Mortaud's Miss France crown hangs in the balance

The reigning Miss France, Chloé Mortaud, could lose her title if a case which appeared before the courts on Wednesday goes against her.

The challenge isn't from any of the other 35 competitors Mortaud beat to win the crown on December 6 last year.

Instead it's coming from Marine Beaury, who is disputing Mortaud's eligibility for the final in the first place.

Beaury was the runner-up in the regional qualifying competition, "Miss Albigeois Midi-Pyrénées", a contest won by Mortaud in September 2008 and which secured her place in the final.

In an interview with a monthly glossy magazine, which ironically appeared just after Mortaud had lifted the national title, Beaury claimed that the vote in the regional contest had been rigged.

Some members of the jury, she maintained, had close personal ties to Mortaud's parents and that contravened the regulations of the competition.

Her claims were rejected by the organisers of the regional pageant, but Beaury didn't let the matter lie there.

She got in touch with a group which represents disgruntled ex-Misses in France - yes such a thing exists, "Collectif des Miss en colère" and the upshot has been the case reaching the courts.

Should it go against her, Mortaud could be stripped of her title and forced to return any prize money she has earned or give back gifts she has received.

In recent years, the Miss France competition has been no stranger to controversy just ask the 2008 winner, Valérie Bègue (the former Miss Réunion).

She was involved in a tussle with the doyenne of the organising committee, Geneviève de Fontenay, after “suggestive” photographs of her appeared in the very same magazine to which Beaury initially took her case, just a month after her election December 2007.

Bègue was allowed to retain her title but banned from representing France at international competitions.

And the 2004 winner, Lætitia Bléger, was stripped of her title just six months into the job after she posed naked for a well-known monthly magazine.

A decision on the case "Beaury versus Mortaud" is expected on June 12.