Murder of democracy in Chandigarh Mayor polls; Returning Officer should be prosecuted: Supreme Court

The Returning Officer of the Chandigarh Municipal polls should be prosecuted as he can be clearly seen defacing the ballot papers on video to influence the election results, the Supreme Court said on Monday [Kuldeep Kumar vs UT Chandigarh and ors]..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took strong exception to such conduct by the Returning Officer and condemned him for 'making a mockery of democracy.'"It is obvious that he has defaced the ballot papers. He needs to be prosecuted. Why is he looking at the camera? Mr Solicitor, this is a mockery of democracy and murdering democracy. We are appalled. Is this behaviour of a returning officer? Wherever there is a cross at bottom, he does not touch it but when it is at the top, he alters it. Please tell returning officer that Supreme Court is watching him," the CJI remarked.The Court proceeded to issue notice to Returning Officer Anil Masih and also directed that entire records of the municipal elections be sequestered with the High Court Registrar General."Let the ballots and videography too be preserved," the Court added.It directed Masih to be present in Court on the next date of hearing (February 19) to explain his conduct.The Court further effectively stayed any activity on the part of the Municipal Corporation for the time being."The ensuing meeting of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation on February 7 shall be deferred till the next date. Let the papers be handed over to the High Court Registrar general by today 5 PM. List on the next Monday week," the Court ordered..The bench was hearing a plea by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Kuldeep Kumar challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court's refusal to grant an immediate stay on the election result in which a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate was declared elected as the Chandigarh Mayor.BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was elected as Mayor on January 30 after he bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate Kumar.This was despite the fact that the AAP-Congress alliance had a majority in the house with 20 members. Eight votes were rejected in the process as invalid, which constituted votes of the AAP-Congress alliance.Kumar initially approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the matter, alleging fraud in BJP’s win and forgery in the rejection of the eight votes. The High Court had last week only issued notice and listed the matter for hearing after three weeks.Kumar then moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the operation of the notification that has been or may be issued for the appointment of Sonkar as the Mayor..Before the High Court, Kumar had also prayed for a fresh election in a free and fair manner under the supervision of a retired High Court judge.He had alleged that in complete departure from the practice and rules, the Presiding Officer Anil Masih had refused to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.The plea further stated that there were three baskets in front of the Presiding Officer - one each for the candidates of the AAP-Congress alliance and BJP and one for invalid votes.As per the plea, a video recording of the election clearly revealed 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 after declaring that eight votes were invalid, but “did not utter a single word for the invalidity of the votes and the party to whom these invalid votes were polled.".Advocate General of Punjab Gurminder Singh, Advocates RPS Bara, Ferry Sofat, Kuldeep Kaur appeared in the case for the petitioner-AAP councillor.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Chandigarh administration..[Read order].[Read live courtroom exchange]