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Synopsis

Anil Masih, former presiding officer of the Chandigarh mayor elections today submitted an unconditional apology before the Supreme Court of India.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Masih told a CJI Chandrachud led bench, "He has rendered an unconditional apology. I had a long chat with him. He will withdraw the first affidavit and surrender to the magnanimity of this court,".

The bench of Justices Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was, on the other hand, told by Senior Advocate AM Singhvi that he could not walk away by giving an apology.

The matter will now be taken up on July 23.

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

This was done after Court had set aside the election results declared by Presiding Officer Anil Masih and held Aam Aadmi Party Councilor Kuldeep Kumar to be the validly elected candidate of the Chandigarh Mayor elections. 

"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.

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.

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.