Chandigarh Returning Officer ‘Unlawfully Altered Course Of Mayoral Election’: Supreme Court’s Top Quotes

AAP-Congress alliance had a majority in the house with 20 members. A total of 36 votes were cast of which 8 votes were rejected in the counting process as invalid.

Supreme court gives significant verdict in Chandigarh Mayoral polls

Source : PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court delivered a significant verdict on Tuesday, overturning the decision made by Returning Officer Anil Masih to declare a BJP candidate as Chandigarh Mayor on January 30. Instead, the Court declared Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the rightful winner of the mayoral polls.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra rendered the decision after rejecting Masih's explanation for invalidating eight votes cast for the AAP candidate.

Here are the top quotes from the judgment delivered by the 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court:

• SC ordered, "The eight votes which were treated as invalid by making those markings ... counting the 8 votes for the petitioner (AAP candidate Kumar) will make him have 20 votes. We direct that the election result by the presiding officer is quashed. The AAP candidate is declared to be the winner of the Chandigarh mayoral polls", as quoted by Bar and Bench.
  
  
• The Court said that Masih had "unlawfully altered the course of the mayoral election" and that he had made statement before the Court that was a "patent falsehood, as per Bar and Bench.
  
  
• CJI asserted that the court is duty bound to ensure that process of electoral democracy is not thwarted.
  
  
• The court must step in to ensure that basic mandate of electoral democracy is preserved, SC observed.
  
  
• Supreme court stated, "Masih could not have been unmindful of making a statement which was false. Registrar Judicial is directed to show-cause Anil Masih as to why steps should not be initiated against him under Section 340, CrPC (related to Section 195 which deals with 'Prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servants')." Apex court held that the duty of court is to preserve democratic principles, per Bar and Bench.
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• The Court observed that "the Presiding Officer has made a deliberate attempt to deface 8 ballots which were cast in favour of the petitioner so that the 8th respondent (BJP candidate) will be declared as the elected candidate", as per Live Law
  
  
• "We are of the view that setting aside the entire election process is inappropriate as the only infirmity is found in the counting process. Setting aside of the entire election process will compound the destruction of the democratic principles which happened due to the conduct of the Presiding Officer," the Court observed, as per Live Law.

Earlier, BJP's Manoj Sonkar was declared to have won the Mayor elections on January 30 on the strength of 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate, Kuldeep Kumar. This was despite the fact that the AAP-Congress alliance had a majority in the house with 20 members. A total of 36 votes were cast of which 8 votes were rejected in the counting process as invalid.

AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar challenged the Mayor poll results initially before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

When the High Court declined to stay the election results, he moved a plea before the Supreme Court.