The Supreme Court, hearing a petition in the alleged irregularities in the Chandigarh mayoral elections, on Monday, ordered the production of ballot papers before it on Tuesday.
The apex court directed the HC registrar general to depute a judicial officer to bring ballot papers and videos for its perusal and asked the administration to provide security to the judicial officer to ensure the safety of officers and records.
The court said it will look into the ballot papers and the entire video recording of the counting of votes tomorrow. Anil Masih, returning officer for Chandigarh mayoral polls, admitted before the court that he tampered with the ballot papers. Masih revealed that he put ‘X’ marks on eight ‘defaced’ ballot papers.
“We will see the ballot papers,” the Bench said, while directing Masih to remain present on Tuesday as well. What we propose to do is this… We will direct the Deputy Commissioner to appoint a fresh returning officer, who is not aligned to any political party. The process shall be taken to the logical conclusion from the stage it stopped before the declaration of results,” the Bench said, terming the reports of horse trading as a “serious matter”.
The court said Masih has to be prosecuted as he was interfering with the poll process. Hearing the petition a day after three AAP municipal councillors switched over to the BJP, the court observed that the “horse-trading” that is taking place is a serious matter.
Three AAP councillors—Neha, Poonam and Gurcharan Kala—joined the BJP on Sunday hours after BJP leader Manoj Sonkar resigned as Chandigarh mayor.
On February 5, the court had hit out at the returning officer, observing that it was obvious that he defaced the ballot papers and that he should be prosecuted, adding that his action amounted to “murder and mockery” of democracy. The court had also ordered preservation of ballots and the video of the poll proceedings.
