‘Horse-trading taking place’: Supreme Court on Chandigarh mayoral polls; says Returning Officer Anil Masih has to be prosecuted

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 19

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the ballot papers and video recording of counting in the Chandigarh mayoral elections be produced before it on Tuesday to enable it to take a final decision even as it expressed serious concern over reports of horse-trading.

A three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud – which had on February 5 termed it as ‘murder of democracy’ – said the Returning Officer Anil Masih has to be prosecuted after he admitted that put his mark 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 Punjab and Haryana High Court Registrar General would oversee the process of counting, it said.

On behalf of the Chandigarh Administration, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta suggested that a fresh poll should be conducted. However, the final course of action will be decided after the Tuesday hearing.

Before asking Masih to respond to the queries from the Bench, the CJI cautioned Masih if he didn’t give truthful answers, he would be prosecuted.

“This is a serious matter. We have seen the video. What were you doing looking at the camera putting out crosses on the ballot papers? Why were you putting marks?” the CJI asked Masih.

“After the voting, I had to put signs on the ballot papers. The ballot papers which were defaced had to be segregated,” replied Masih.

“It’s very evident from the video that you were putting X marks on certain ballot papers. Did you put X marks on certain ballot papers?,” asked the CJI.

As Masih said he marked eight ballot papers, the CJI asked, “Why did you deface the ballot papers? You had to only sign the ballot papers… Where is it provided in the rules that you can put other marks in the ballot papers?”

Masih sought to defend himself by saying, the ballot papers were defaced by candidates who snatched and destroyed them and that he was separately marking the ballot papers defaced by voters to ensure they didn’t get mixed up.

“Mr. Solicitor, he (Masih) has to be prosecuted. He is interfering with the election process,” CJI Chandrachud said.

BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar had bagged 16 votes against the 12 received by the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar after eight votes were rejected in the January 30 polls to elect the Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. However, Sonkar resigned on Sunday.

AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar had moved the top court seeking quashing of the Chandigarh mayoral election results that declared BJP candidate Sonkar as the winner.

“Please tell your Returning Officer that the Supreme Court is watching over him. We will not allow democracy to be murdered like this. The only thing… the great stabilizing force in the country is the purity of the electoral process,” an angry CJI Chandrachud had on February 5 told the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta after watching a video clip of his alleged misdeeds.

“We are simply appalled by what has happened… Is this the behaviour of a returning officer? He looks at the camera and defaces the ballot and obviously, where there is a cross at the bottom, he just keeps it into the tray. The moment there is a cross at the top; the man defaces the ballot and then looks at the camera to see who’s looking at him,” the CJI had said, coming down heavily on the Returning Officer.

Earlier, a Division Bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had denied relief to AAP, which had demanded fresh polls under the supervision of a retired high court judge, alleging tampering with ballot papers.

The high court had, however, issued a notice to the Chandigarh Administration and asked it to respond to Kumar’s petition in three weeks.