Read Time: 06 minutes

Synopsis

The Supreme Court today has held Aam Aadmi Party Councilor Kuldeep Kumar to be the validly elected candidate of the Chandigarh Mayor elections. 

Observing that it was the court's basic duty to ensure that electoral democracy is preserved, a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra noted that after adding the 8 ballot papers, all cast in favour of the AAP candidate, which were originally declared to be invalid, the tally of votes would amount to 20 votes in favour of Kumar as opposed to the 16 votes received by his BJP opponent.

It was found that the 8 ballot papers held to be invalid were done so in a deliberate attempt to make sure that the BJP candidate won.

"The conduct of the Presiding Officer has to be deprecated at two levels, firstly he has unlawfully altered the course of the mayoral elections and secondly, in making a solemn statement before this court, he has made a falsehood for which he must be held accountable.", the court has noted.

Court accordingly went on to set aside the election results declared by Presiding Officer Anil Masih. The bench also refused to order fresh election process noting that it would be inappropriate to do so.

Furthermore, the Registrar Judicial of Punjab and Haryana High Court is directed to issue a show cause to Anil Masih to show why action must not be taken against him as per Section 340 of CrPC.

Supreme Court yesterday had directed the ballot papers of the Chandigarh Mayor elections which have been placed in custody of registrar general of Punjab and Haryana high Court as per the court's earlier order would be placed before it today by 10:30AM.

The bench yesterday further remarked that it was inclined to direct the deputy commissioner to appoint a fresh Returning Officer who is not aligned to any political party to take the election process to its logical conclusion.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had came down heavily on the Returning Officer after going through the video of the proceedings for conducting the election to the Post of Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Calling the situation to be a "murder of democracy", the bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra expressed that it was appalled by what had happened.

Accordingly, court had directed that the entire record pertaining to the election of the Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation shall be sequestered under the custody of the Registrar General of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana which shall include, the ballot papers, videography of the entire electoral process; and all other material in the custody of the Returning Officer.

Allegedly, in the Chandigarh Mayor election, a BJP candidate was declared the winner after the votes of 8 councillors of the Congress-AAP alliance were declared invalid.

Case Title: KULDEEP KUMAR vs. U.T. CHANDIGARH & ORS.