New Delhi: The Supreme Court has finally taken an important decision on the mayor election of Chandigarh. The Supreme Court canceled the decision to declare the BJP candidate as mayor and declared the Congress-AAP candidate as mayor. It has also set aside the decision of the Returning Officer to invalidate the eight tampered votes and declared all these votes as valid. The entire election process was marred by massive malpractice, although the Supreme Court ultimately cleared the malpractice and declared Mayer the true winner.
Along with this, a case of contempt of court will be filed against Returning Officer Anil Masih, who declared eight votes invalid by rigging them. The Supreme Court has ordered the Judicial Registrar to issue a notice against Anil Masih.
He has been accused of misleading the court by giving false statements. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud of the Supreme Court said that it has been proved that the returning officer had tampered with eight ballot papers. Along with this, the Supreme Court has canceled the previously declared election results, declaring them illegal.
The Supreme Court exercised full judicial power with the help of Article 142 of the Constitution. Action has been ordered against Anil Masih under section 340 of CrPC. Counting of votes for Chandigarh Mayor election took place on January 30. Kuldeep Kumar was the mayor candidate from Aam Aadmi Party and Congress, while Manoj Kumar was made the candidate from BJP. Returning Officer Anil Masih, who counted the votes, declared BJP's Manoj Kumar the winner.
However, while they were counting the votes, they tampered with eight ballot papers of AAP and Congress, which was captured on CCTV cameras. AAP-Congress got 20 votes each while the BJP candidate got 16 votes. The returning officer had tampered with eight votes of AAP-Congress by putting tick marks etc. in them. Therefore the number was reduced to 12 and the BJP candidate was declared mayor. The Supreme Court on Tuesday personally verified all the ballot papers, which proved that eight AAP-Congress votes were tampered with. The Supreme Court also said that a line was drawn with a pen at the end of these eight ballot papers. Was. Chandigarh Mun. According to the Corporation Regulation Act 1996, a ballot paper can be declared invalid in three cases, (1) if there is any mark of voter identification, (2) if there is more than one vote, (3) if it is not clear that Who voted?
However, out of the eight votes declared invalid by the Returning Officer, no defect was found in any of these three categories and hence all these votes were declared valid and the AAP-Congress candidate was declared the winner of the mayor's post. Meanwhile, after this decision of the Supreme Court, Congress welcomed it and said that it is a victory of democracy.
A little entertainment is also necessary: CJI smiled after watching the video
CCTV video clip of Returning Officer tampering with votes in Chandigarh Mayor elections was played in the Supreme Court. During the hearing, everyone including the Chief Justice watched this video clip. The entire video of this entire controversy was presented in the Supreme Court, while the video was playing, Chief Justice Chandrachud said that everyone should watch this video, a little entertainment is necessary for everyone. He smiled and said that there is no need to play the entire video, we have seen the necessary part.
Returning officer's relation with BJP
A contempt case will be filed against Returning Officer Anil Masih, who tampered with votes in the Chandigarh Mayor elections. 53-year-old Anil Masih had joined BJP a few years ago in the hope of getting a ticket from BJP in 2021. However, they were made councilors in the Chandigarh Municipality by the BJP, a total of nine given the post, although they did not have voting rights. However, amid the controversy, BJP removed Anil Masih from this post.