SC overturns Chandigarh mayoral poll result, declares defeated AAP candidate winner
It also ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour"
By Newsmeter Network Published on 20 Feb 2024 6:35 PM IST
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the result of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had emerged an unlikely winner, and declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor.
It also ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour", after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election.
The apex court made it clear that it was not quashing the entire electoral exercise and restricting itself to dealing with the wrong-doings in the counting process which led to invalidation of eight votes cast in Kumar's favour.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said it was evident that Masih made a deliberate attempt to deface eight ballot papers.
The BJP had won the mayoral poll defeating the comfortably placed AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the returning officer declared as invalid eight votes of the coalition partners, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots.
Manoj Sonkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had defeated Kuldeep Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival's 12 to bag the mayor's post. Sonkar, however, resigned subsequently, while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP.
Examination of papers
Supreme Court physically examined the papers and found that they were not defaced. The presiding officer Masih had deliberately struck a line on it, found the court.
Court orders action
SC has asked to take action against Masih under section 340 CRPC. Registrar judicial is directed to issue a show cause notice to him. The bench opined that Mr Masih should be prosecuted for interfering with the election process.
Who is Anil Masih?
Anil Masih, a nominated member of the Chandigarh Municipality and belonging to the BJP, was appointed as the Presiding Officer of the Chandigarh Mayor elections.
"Yes i marked and defaced," Masih told Chief Justice of India.
"8 ballot papers", said Maish
His defence was that I put marks as I didn't want papers to get mixed with other ballot papers He said that when he did the markings, the members of AAP Mr Manohar and Ms Premlata came and tried to snatch the ballot papers away. He had to call the Marshals to preserve the papers in the chaos.
SC bench further questioned him under which law did he mark the papers as he is only to sign the papers.
The behaviour of the presiding officer has led to severe criticism and also the manner in which election officers are behaving in the process of election.
The institution which is to be neutral is acting biased and that has led to a major backlash from people who are upset with the behaviour of officials.
