Punjab and Haryana High Court hears Brijendra Singh's plea for re-verification of 215 rejected postal ballots

Just about a year after BJP's Devender Chattar Bhuj Attri was declared victorious from the Uchana Assembly constituency with 215 postal ballots rejected against a victory margin of just 32 votes, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recorded the statement of former Hisar MP and Congress leader Brijendra Singh. Among other things, he stated before Justice Anoop Chitkara’s Bench that the Returning Officer was under obligation to re-verify the rejected votes.

Brijendra Singh, who challenged Attri’s election by filing an election petition before the High Court, was subjected to cross-examination for over two hours by Attri’s lawyer and senior advocate Satya Pal Jain after the petitioner’s lawyer questioned him during the examination-in-chief to present facts supporting his case.

Jain was accompanied in the matter by counsel Dheeraj Jain.

Appearing before Justice Chitkara’s Bench in his own petition, the bureaucrat-turned-politician asserted that the Returning Officer was “mandatorily required to re-verify the votes declared invalid” when the number of invalid votes – 215 – exceeded the margin of victory – 32.

Brijendra Singh added that the process was also required to be video-graphed.

Jain, while cross-examining Brijendra Singh, questioned why he did not raise any complaint before the result was declared or during his interactions with the media after leaving the counting centre. He also questioned the petitioner whether he had lodged any complaint regarding the counting by the EVMs.

Jain also stated that the petitioner had not stated in the petition that he would have been declared victorious had the votes been counted. Brijendra maintained that his grievance was confined to the rejection of ballots, stressing that the number far outweighed the slender winning margin; and the petition made it clear that counting of invalid votes would have resulted in his victory

Out of 1,377 postal ballots received in the October 2024 Assembly election, 1,158 were held valid and counted, with 636 votes polled in Brijendra’s favour. The petition, originally raising multiple grounds, now hinges solely on the issue of “improper rejection” of the ballots.

The proceedings today signalled a crucial stage in the election trial, with Brijendra Singh making it clear that he was pressing only the claim relating to the postal ballots’ rejection.

The way for the election petition to proceed was paved just about a week ago, when Justice Chitkara dismissed an application filed by the returned candidate seeking dismissal of the amended election petition filed against him by Brijendra Singh.

Holding that the matter disclosed a cause of action, Justice Chitkara had ruled: “The election petition discloses proper cause of action, and as such, this Court cannot dismiss the same under Order 7 Rule 11 CPC without putting it on trial.”

The Bench had made it clear that the objections raised were untenable, as the amendment did not expand the scope of the petition but only confined it.