The Court was hearing a petition by AAP Councillor Kuldeep Kumar who alleged fraud in the decision by RO Anil Masih to declare BJP Manoj Sonkar (now resigned) as the Chandigarh Mayor on January 30.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the decision by Returning Officer (RO) Anil Masih (the Presiding Officer) to declare a BJP candidate as Chandigarh Mayor on January 30 and declared Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Kuldeep Kumar to be the winner of the mayoral polls instead [Kuldeep Kumar vs UT Chandigarh and ors].
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra passed the order after the Court rejected RO Masih’s explanation on why he had declared the eight votes for AAP candidate to be invalid.
“The eight votes which were treated as invalid by making those markings … counting the 8 votes for the petitioner (AAP candidate Kumar) will make him have 20 votes. We direct that the election result by the presiding officer is quashed. The AAP candidate is declared to be the winner of the Chandigarh mayoral polls,” the Court ordered.
The Court also strongly deprecated the conduct of Returning Officer Anil Masih.
The Court said that Masih had “unlawfully altered the course of the mayoral election” and that he had made statement before the Court that was a “patent falsehood.”
The Court, therefore, issued a show cause notice to Masih.
“Masih could not have been unmindful of making a statement which was false. Registrar Judicial is directed to show-cause Anil Masih as to why steps should not be initiated against him under Section 340, CrPC (related to Section 195 which deals with ‘Prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servants’). Anil Masih shall have an opportunity to file a reply to the show cause notice,” the Court ordered.
The Court was hearing a petition filed by AAP Councillor Kuldeep Kumar who alleged fraud in RO Masih’s decision to declare Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Manoj Sonkar (since resigned) as the Chandigarh Mayor on January 30.
BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was declared to have won the Mayor elections on January 30 on the strength of 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate, Kuldeep Kumar.
This was despite the fact that the AAP-Congress alliance had a majority in the house with 20 members. A total of 36 votes were cast of which 8 votes were rejected as invalid during the counting process.
AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar challenged the Mayor poll results initially before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
When the High Court declined to stay the election results, he moved a plea before the Supreme Court.
Notably, while the matter was pending before the top court, the BJP candidate (Sonkar) resigned from the post of Mayor on Monday and three AAP Councillors defected to the BJP.
This development was taken note of by the top court on Monday which said that it was “distressed” by such “horse-trading.”
During the hearing of the matter on Monday, Masih had said that he had only marked (by putting ticks and “x” marks) the eight ballot papers submitted by the AAP-Congress alliance to set them apart as they were “defaced.”
The Court had then ordered that the ballot papers and the video of the counting process be produced before it.
When the matter was taken up for hearing today, the Court was handed the ballot papers.
After examining the ballot papers, the bench noted that these ballot papers which had been crossed as invalid by Masih were clearly votes cast in favour of the AAP candidate.
“See, Kuldeep Kumar and Manoj Kumar.. What has been done is … eight ballots invalidated.. all eight have received the stamp for Kuldeep Kumar.. The RO signs at the bottom and puts a single line there … everywhere, he puts a single line.. I have a question to Mr. Masih – you said that you put the line because it was defaced … Where has it been defaced?” CJI Chandrachud asked.
