The Supreme Court on Monday expressed grave concern over the possible incidents of "horse trading" and said that it will look at the ballot papers through which votes were cast in the controversial Chandigarh Mayoral elections and then decide if election results can be deduced from them. After hearing all the sides and questioning the presiding officer Anil Masih, the top court directed the ballot papers to be produced on Tuesday in court for further examination.
While passing the order the CJI DY Chandrachud expressed grave concern over the fears of horse-trading taking place if fresh elections are ordered. On Sunday, three AAP councillors from Chandigarh joined the BJP.
"In pursuance of interim order, the ballot papers have been taken into custody by the Registrar General of High Court...we direct that the ballot papers which have been placed in the custody of Registrar General be produced tomorrow before this court at 10.30 AM" the CJI said while dictating order.
A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra heard the matter and said that the court would direct that the votes already cast be counted by disregarding the 'X' marks which were made on them by the previous Presiding Officer Anil Masih.
SG Tushar Mehta requested the top court to order fresh elections. However, the Punjab AG and Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh appearing for petitioner requested the court to consider declaring results on present votes in the "interest of justice".
Singh further referred to the top court's prima facie view on High Court's refusal to grant immediate stay on elections results and said that if high court had issued the required order at that time, perhaps the concerns over horse-trading would not have arrived.
The top court said that it will ask the Deputy Commissioner of the Chandigarh Administration to nominate an officer, who is not aligned with any of the political parties, to be the returning officer to count the ballots and declare the results. The court was told today that Anil Masih was a nominated member who had affiliations with a political party (BJP).
The bench further said that the re-counting process will be judicially overseen by a judicial officer nominated by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
However, SG Mehta told the bench that some of the ballot papers were torn and it may not be possible to deduce results from them. The CJI then directed the ballot papers to be presented in the court to determine there conditions.
The bench further noted in its order, "During the course of the hearing, the returning officer Mr. Anil Masih was present. Responding to the questions, Mr. Masih said that besides putting the signature, he also put certain marks on eight ballot papers. He said that he put the marks on the ballot papers which were defaced. We will see the ballot papers tomorrow and we will direct Mr Masih to be present in court."
The top court was hearing the petition filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Councillor Kuldeep Kumar against the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s refusal to grant an immediate stay on the Chandigarh Mayor election result in which a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Manoj Sonkar was declared as Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
Earlier, the apex court had directed the presiding officer Anil Masih to explain his conduct during the elections in person to court on next hearing
On February 5, the CJI slammed Masih for his conduct saying that it is obvious that he defaced the ballot papers.
"Is this the way he conducts the elections? This is a mockery of democracy. This is a murder of democracy. This man should be prosecuted," CJI Chandrachud said while passing orders.
The court had passed orders directing that the entire record of Chandigarh Mayor elections be sequestered under custody of Punjab & Haryana High Court Registrar General. The court also deferred the February 7 meeting of the Municipal Corporation.
The court also took a prima facie view and said that the high court failed to pass an order to protect the sanctity of the electoral process.
The case reached the top court after the Punjab & Haryana High Court refused to stay the election results.
On January 30, the AAP and Congress alleged fraud in the elections that declared BJP candidate Manij Sonkar the Mayor. They have accused the presiding officer Anil Masih of refusing to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes. They have also alleged that videos from the election clearly show that Masih shuffled the votes from one basket to another and tampered with ballot papers.
Sonkar was elected as the Mayor after winning 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the INDIA bloc candidate Kuldeep Kumar. Masih rejected 8 votes as invalid while counting. The AAP Councillor has alleged that the rejection of the eight votes was done by forgery.
The AAP councillor sought fresh elections under the supervision of a retired High Court judge. However, the high court only issued notice in the case and listed it for further hearing on February 26.