Chandigarh Mayoral Polls: Supreme Court Declares AAP Candidate Winner, Masih Guilty Of 'Serious Misdemeanour'
The top court held Anil Masih guilty of serious misdemeanor in his role and capacity as the presiding officer for making 'deliberate efforts to deface the eight ballot papers'.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday declared the AAP-Congress alliance candidate as the mayor of Chandigarh, while setting aside the earlier election result.
The top court held Anil Masih guilty of serious misdemeanor in his role and capacity as the presiding officer for making "deliberate efforts to deface the eight ballot papers in question".
The court said that setting aside the whole election process is not warranted as it would further compound the erosion of democratic principles. Apart from defacing the eight ballot papers, the rest of the process took place in a proper manner, it said.
"The court must step in in such exceptional situations, so that the basic mandate of electoral democracy is preserved", the apex court said.
The court observed that the 8 votes which were invalidated by Masih were all polled in favour of the AAP-Congress alliance candidate.
It is evident that Kuldeep Kumar (AAP-Congress) has secured 20 votes (12+8) and Manoj Sonkar has secured 16 votes, the court noted.
Further, the court has directed that a notice be issued to Masih to show cause as to why criminal proceedings should not be initiated against him.
The case pertains to an alleged defacing of ballot papers by the returning officer in the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
On Jan. 30, BJP won the Chandigarh mayoral polls defeating the AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the returning officer declared eight votes of the coalition partners as invalid, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots.
Manoj Sonkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated Kuldeep Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival's 12 to bag the mayor's post. However, Sonkar resigned a day before the top court was supposed to hear the matter on Feb. 19.
In a video that was presented before the court, Masih, the returning officer, was found putting a mark on the ballot papers.
The court pointed out that the returning officer can only sign the ballot paper and cannot put any marks on it as it is against the law to do so.
Further, the court also took notice of the fact that three AAP councillors had joined the BJP after Sonkar's resignation and expressed concern over alleged horse-trading going on in Chandigarh.
In order to accord an in-depth examination to the matter, the court ordered the Punjab & Haryana High Court's registrar general to assign a judicial officer to deliver the ballots and the election's video recordings securely before the top court on Feb. 20.
The court also directed Masih to remain present before it.
