The Supreme Court today proposed that the result of the controversial Chandigarh Mayor election will be declared on the basis of present ballot papers instead of ordering a fresh election.
The apex court stated that it would direct that the votes already cast be counted by disregarding the marks which were made by the previous preceding officer Anil Masih. The 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 Supreme Court further mentioned that the entire counting process will be judicially overseen by a judicial officer nominated by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that the process shall be taken to the logical conclusion from the stage it stopped before the declaration of results.
A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra ordered that the ballot papers be produced before the court tomorrow at 10:30 am to ascertain if the votes can be deduced from them. Furthermore, the Registrar General of the High Court has been asked to nominate a judicial officer to bring the ballot papers to the court.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta appearing for the Chandigarh Administration suggested that a fresh election be conducted under the supervision of a judicial officer. AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar who lost the election opposed the proposal.
Appearing for Kuldeep Kumar, Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh submitted that votes can be counted on the basis of the present ballot papers. According to the regulations, the ballots are rendered invalid only on three conditions: if votes are cast for more than two candidates, if any mark is left identifying the voter, if any mark is left on the ballot making it difficult to ascertain to whom the vote is cast.
Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh contended that none of the aforesaid conditions are present in the eight ballot papers, which were defaced by the Returning officer Anil Masih. The Senior Advocate asserted that Masih was a member of the minority wing of the other party.
Subsequently, the court remarked that it would order the counting based on the present ballots. At this juncture, SG Tushar Mehta stated that some of the ballot papers are believed to be torn. Following, the court directed the production of the ballot papers tomorrow for its examination.
In addition, the Chief Justice of India expressed that they are deeply concerned about the horse-trading which is taking place. Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing, BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar who was elected as the BJP candidate resigned. Furthermore, there are reports that 3 AAP councillors joined the BJP.