Chandigarh mayoral election - Supreme Court declares Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court proclaimed defeated AAP-Congress coalition candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor, overturning the results of the Chandigarh mayoral election, in which the BJP nominee had emerged as an unexpected winner. In response to a request from Kuldeep Kumar, the Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra were hearing a case in which the Returning Officer, Anil Masih, was accused of "defacing the ballots" during the Chandigarh mayoral election on January 30.
The top court further mandated that BJP leader Anil Masih be prosecuted for his "misdemeanor" after identifying grave irregularities in the way the January 30 poll was handled. The decision by the Supreme Court to file a perjury lawsuit against Anil Masih in accordance with Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) Section 340. The penalties for purposefully providing false testimony or creating false evidence during a legal action are covered in this section.
"The eight votes which were treated as invalid by making those markings... counting the eight votes for the petitioner (AAP candidate Kumar) will make him have 20 votes. We direct that the election result by the Returning Officer be quashed. The petitioner is declared to be the winner of the Chandigarh mayoral polls," the bench said in its order.
CJI Chandrachud made an oral observation during the hearing suggesting that the votes cast during the polls should be tallied afresh, considering the ballots that Masih had defiled as legitimate. Eight of Kumar's votes were declared invalid as a consequence of the Court's clarification that it was not annulling the election in its entirety but rather concentrating on resolving problems with the counting procedure. The Court also ordered a new vote count to be conducted under the observation of a judicial official, voicing worry about the potential for horse trading.
Sachin Pilot, the leader of the Congress, stated, "I applaud the SC ruling. It doesn't bode well for a democracy, in fact, if the legitimacy and authority of organizations like the Election Commission be called into question. It surprises me that the SC had to step in and correct the record. It ought to serve as a model for how the EC will operate in the future."
Manoj Sonkar of BJP stepped down as mayor of Chandigarh on 18th February night, just one day before the Supreme Court was to hear a suit claiming irregularities in the just concluded mayoral elections. The action followed Punam Devi, Neha Musawat, and Gurcharan Kala, three Chandigarh Aam Aadmi Party council members, resigned and joined the BJP yesterday night.
Representing the winner of the mayoral race, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, begged the SC to hold new elections since "there is a vacancy in the post." Singh resigned on Sunday, February 18, before of a court hearing.
"There is more relief in the electoral process being placed aside. Since the counting procedure is the lone area of concern, we believe that throwing out the whole election process is incorrect. The court stated that to throw out the whole election process would only exacerbate the erosion of democratic values brought about by the Presiding Officer's actions.
