AAP Candidate New Mayor Of Chandigarh, SC Decides

Written by:

Adv Shifa

Updated: 09-03-2024

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While deciding the case of Kuldeep Kumar v. U.T. Chandigarh SLP(C), the Supreme Court heavily rebuked the Presiding Officer (PO) for the Chandigarh Mayoral Elections, Mr Anil Masih, after it came to conclusion that he deliberately tried to meddle with the vote counting process and thus, affecting the election results.

Quashing the election results and declaring AAP-INC Alliance candidate Mr Kuldeep Kumar as the Mayor of Chandigarh, criminal proceedings provided under Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were also initiated against Mr Masih for making false statements by the Court.

The Presiding Officer found guilty of misdemeanour-

It was found by the Court that Mr Masih was guilty as he deliberately tried to deface eight ballot papers which were in favour of the AAP-INC Candidate, in order to declare them as invalid and having them discounted from final results.
The CJI observed, that it was proven that in each of the ballots so marked, the vote was casted in the favour of the petitioner, i.e. the AAP-INC alliance. Presiding Officer, thus marked the ballots with the sole purpose of creating grounds so as to treat the ballot to be casted in an illegal manner.
The Court also remarked that the Presiding Officer is guilty of a serious misdemeanour, with how he acted in his capacity as presiding officer.
The Court held that the PO shall be held responsible under Section 340 CrPC for making false statements. Thus, ordering the Registrar Judicial to issue a show cause notice to Anil Masih, as to why steps should not be taken against him under Section 340 CrPC.
Mr Masih, in the hearing held on the previous day explained that he had marked the defaced ballot papers in order to ensure that they would not get mixed with the other papers.
But, the Court, after having physically examined the 8 ballot papers under question, found that they were not defaced, thus rendering the statement submitted by Mr. Masih as false.
The Court held that the PO was given a notice explaining the serious consequences, in case he is found to have submitted an incorrect statement before the Court.

Re-elections would lead to the destruction of democratic principles-

Even though the Court took note of the fact that wrongfully selected Mayor Mr. Manohar Sonkar had resigned, the option of setting aside the entire election procedure and a re-election was denied by the Court.
The Court observed that it would not be appropriate to declare the entire election process as null and void, when the only problem which was found was at the stage of counting votes by the Presiding Officer, and allowing the entire election process to be cancelled would ultimately lead to a destruction of the fundamental democratic principles due to the conduct of the PO.
The Court while recognising its powers to ensure complete justice provided under Article 142, expressed an urgent need to step in to safeguard the electoral democracy.
The Bench observed that it is duty bound, especially under Article 142 to ensure proper justice so that the process of electoral democracy is not thwarted by such subterfuge.

Final result of the Chandigarh Mayoral Elections-

It was also observed by the Court that all the 8 ballots, wrongly declared as invalid, had the votes in favour of the AAP councillor. Petitioner, i.e. the AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar, had 12 votes in his favour, as well as the 8 votes which were treated as invalid wrongly by the PO, were validly passed in the petitioner’s favour, making the tally at 20 votes in favour of Kuldeep Kumar. 8th respondent the BJP candidate, on the other hand, had 16 votes in his favour.
The Court, in its decision, finally declared the AAP-INC Candidate and Petitioner Mr Kuldeep Kumar as the Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, while setting aside the results declared by the PO Mr.Anil Masih in the favour of Mr. Manoj Sonkar.

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