In a major victory for the Aam Aadmi Party, the Supreme Court Tuesday declared party candidate Kuldeep Kumar as ‘validly elected’ Mayor of Chandigarh, after directing 8 ‘invalid’ votes to be treated as valid. The Court also directed issuance of a show cause notice to returning officer Anil Masih.
These 8 votes were cast in favour of the AAP, and were defaced by Masih.
During the hearing, Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud orally observed that the votes cast during the polls be counted again, treating the ballots defaced by Masih as valid.
Chandrachud also said that the ballot papers on which Masih had out markings were those which were cast in favour of AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar.
The Supreme Court said, “It is evident that presiding officer made deliberate attempt to deface 8 ballot papers.”
Reacting to the court’s order, AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Thank you SC for saving democracy in these difficult times!”
On Monday, the Supreme Court had expressed concern at the possibility of horse trading against the background of the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
“What we propose to do is to direct the Deputy Commissioner, who is the prescribed authority, to appoint a fresh Returning Officer. We will ensure that the Returning Officer…may be an officer of the state who is not aligned to any political party. The process shall be taken to its logical conclusion from the stage, which was reached immediately before the declaration of the result. We will ask the Registrar General of the High Court to nominate a judicial officer to oversee the process of the counting of the ballots. And let the results be declared on that, disregarding the defusement, which has been made by the returning officer either in the form of putting any mark or whatever on the ballot papers. Let that be carried out,” a bench presided by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said orally before directing that the ballot papers be produced before the court on Tuesday.
