Chandigarh Mayor polls: Punjab and Haryana High Court issues notice on AAP councillor's plea alleging fraud in BJP win but declines stay

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh on a petition alleging fraud in the election held on Tuesday for the post of Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation [Kuldeep Kumar v. UT Chandigarh And Ors]..A division bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger issued notice on Aam Aadmi Party Councillor Kuldeep Kumar's petition and asked that the respondents to file their replies within three weeks.The Court was told that record of the election held on Tuesday has already been preserved in the strong room. However, no interim order was passed staying the results. .Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Manoj Sonkar was elected as the Mayor on Tuesday after he bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate. Eight votes were rejected in the process as invalid. The decision was challenged by AAP and Congress Party’s Joint Candidate Kuldeep Kumar who accused the Presiding Officer of resorting to fraud and forgery in the counting process.Kumar has prayed for fresh election in a free and fair manner under the supervision of a retired High Court judge..In the petition, Kumar alleged that in complete departure of the practice and rules, the Presiding Officer refused to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.“The Presiding Officer in most flimsy manner addressed to the House that he does not want any assistance from the members nominated by the parties contesting the election and he will count the vote himself. The voices were raised by the Aam Admi Party and Congress but their requests were not heeded, but surprisingly the Deputy Commissioner, Respondent No.2 and the Prescribed Authority, who was also in the same capacity in the last year’s election remained mum,” the petition said..The plea further stated that there were three baskets in front of the Presiding Officer - two for the candidates of the AAP-Congress alliance and BJP and one for invalid votes.As per the plea, videos from the election reveal that the Presiding Officer shuffled the votes from one basket to another “only with a view to create a confusion during which he completely compromised the election process by forgery and tampering.”The petition further alleged that the Presiding Officer against all the rules and regulations announced the result that eight votes had been declared invalid but “did not utter a single word for the invalidity of the votes and the party to whom these invalid votes were polled”It was argued in the petition that Presiding Officer’s actions are nothing but murder of democracy and democratic system for elections. The petition further accused the officers responsible for holding the elections to be hand in glove with the BJP. "That the majority of the Officers, who were be responsible for conducting the election, including the Presiding Officer and the Secretary, Municipal Corporation belong to Haryana Cadre of Officers, where the Govt. of BJP is in power and they are under the party influence.".Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh and advocates Ramanpreet Singh Bara, KS Kharbanda and Ferry Sofat represented petitioner Kuldeep Kumar.Senior Standing Counsel Anil Mehta represented the Union Territory of Chandigarh.Public Prosecutor Manish Bansal represented the Chandigarh Police. [Read Order]