The Supreme Courtroom on Monday slammed the presiding officer Anil Masih for his conduct within the Chandigarh Mayor elections.
“It’s apparent that he defaced the poll papers. Is that this the way in which he conducts the elections? It is a mockery of democracy. It is a homicide of democracy. This man ought to be prosecuted,” CJI DY Chandrachud whereas passing orders.
The three-judge bench headed by CJI directed that complete file of Chandigarh Mayor elections be sequestered underneath custody of Punjab & Haryana Excessive Courtroom Registrar Basic. The court docket additional requested that the February 7 assembly of Municipal Company shall stand deferred until additional orders.
The court docket heard the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) Councillor Kuldeep Kumar’s petition on Monday in opposition to Punjab and Haryana Excessive Courtroom’s refusal to grant a direct keep on the Chandigarh Mayor election end result wherein a Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) candidate was declared as Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Company.
A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra heard the petition.
The row over the elections erupted after AAP and Congress who collectively contested the Mayoral elections underneath the INDIA bloc accused the presiding officer Anil Masih of refusing to permit the nominees of events to observe the counting of votes.
They’ve additionally alleged that movies from the election clearly reveal that the Masih shuffled the votes from one basket to a different and tampered with poll papers.
The controversial Mayoral ballot in Chandigarh reached the apex court docket after the excessive court docket refused to right away keep the election end result.
The AAP councilor sought contemporary elections underneath the supervision of a retired Excessive Courtroom choose. Nevertheless, the excessive court docket solely issued discover within the case and listed it for additional listening to on February 26.
Manoj Sonkar, the Mayor candidate from BJP was elected because the Mayor on Tuesday after successful 16 votes in opposition to the 12 votes acquired by the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar.
The presiding officer Anil Masih rejected 8 votes as invalid whereas counting. Kumar then moved the Punjab and Haryana excessive court docket alleging fraud by BJP. The AAP Councillor alleged that the rejection of the eight votes was accomplished by forgery.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had mentioned on Wednesday that the get together will transfer the highest court docket for an early listening to within the matter.
“At the moment will go down in historical past as a ‘black day’ in our nation’s democracy. Sadly, this is identical month that we commemorate Republic Day. At the moment, the Structure has been shredded. The BJP ‘looted’ the Chandigarh mayor election in entrance of the media and cameras. Beforehand, they did this in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, and the northeastern states. So that is their outdated behavior,” Mann acknowledged throughout a press convention.