Chandigarh Mayoral Poll Returning Officer's Big Revelation In Supreme Court

Anil Masih, the Returning Officer for the Chandigarh Municipal polls, appeared before a bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra yesterday in connection with the alleged malpractice in the polls. The CJI posed harsh questions to Masih over the allegations of defacing ballots. The bench expressed concern over the 'horse trading' and slammed Anil Masih saying he must be prosecuted for 'defacing ballot papers'.

The bench asked Masih why he had made cross and tick marks on the ballot papers while counting them while he was only required to sign at the bottom. "This is a very serious matter. All that you say... if any falsehood you will be prosecuted... Why were you looking into the camera and putting marks in the ballot papers?" asked CJI Chandrachud.

Masih replied that he was just marking the ballot papers that were defaced and that there were so many cameras that he was just looking at them.
The returning office informed the apex court that he had made the marks on eight ballot papers, only to set them apart. "That means you marked it. He has to be prosecuted. In an electoral democracy, this cannot be allowed," the bench said.

The top court came down heavily on the returning officer who held the Chandigarh Mayor elections saying he was 'murdering democracy' and ordered the preservation of an entire record of the election process including ballot papers, videography and other material through Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The Supreme Court ordered that the ballot papers and video that have been taken into custody by the Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court be produced before the apex court at 2 pm today.

Reacting to the three AAP councillors joining the BJP, the bench said that it's deeply concerned about the horse-trading which is taking place. The apex court was hearing a plea of AAP's councillor Kuldeep Dhalor after the BJP won the mayoral election following the Returning Officer's move of scrapping eight opposition votes.

Aam Aadmi Party's councillor Dhalor lost the mayor election to Bharatiya Janata Party's Manoj Sonkar on January 30. Sonkar resigned from his post late on February 18, ahead of the resumption of hearing today in the apex court. BJP's Sonkar bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by Dhalor despite having 20 councillors. The action of rejecting eight votes of the AAP-Congress alliance as invalid had sparked allegations of vote tempering.