The court expressed annoyance on the electoral proceedings and said that prima facie the returning officer was 'defacing' the ballot papers.
Supreme Court of India. (iStock)
Appalled by the alleged defacing of ballot papers in the Chandigarh mayoral polls, the Supreme Court on Monday, 5 February, said this is a mockery of democracy and ordered that the ballots and the video of the electoral proceedings be preserved.
“Is this the way he conducts the elections? This is a mockery of democracy. This is murder of democracy. This man should be prosecuted,” said Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud as quoted by LiveLaw.
Taking note of the petition filed by AAP Councillor Kuldeep Kumar challenging the refusal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to stay the immediate election, the court issued notices to the Chandigarh authorities, including the civic body.
Issuing notice on Kumar’s petition, the court directed to defer the meeting of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation scheduled on 7 February.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra expressed annoyance after watching the video of the electoral proceedings and said that prima facie the returning officer was “defacing” the ballot papers.
“This is a mockery of democracy. We are appalled by what has happened. We will not allow democracy to be murdered like this,” the CJI said.
The CJI said that the Court is “appalled” to see the behaviour of the Presiding Officer. “Why is he looking at the camera and running like a fugitive?”, CJI said after seeing the video of the proceedings.
After watching the video, CJI said that the Presiding Officer was seen making alterations to the ballot paper. “Tell him that the Supreme Court is watching him,” said the CJI.
The bench ordered that the ballot papers and the video recordings of the proceedings be preserved and should be handed over to the Registrar General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by 5 pm on Monday.
One of the AAP councillors had moved the top court challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that refused to grant any interim relief to the party seeking fresh mayoral polls in Chandigarh.
The BJP on 30 January swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls against the Congress-AAP alliance.
Manoj Sonkar of the BJP had defeated the AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar for the mayor’s post, polling 16 votes against his rival’s 12. Eight votes were declared invalid.
Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that a BJP candidate was chosen as the Presiding Officer and he acted in a partisan manner by deliberately defacing eight ballot papers of the Congress-AAP councillors and deliberately rendering their votes invalid.
(With PTI inputs)
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