Chandigarh Mayor Polls: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has launched a purported video displaying the presiding officer allegedly tampering with the ballot papers earlier than declaring them invalid in the Chandigarh Mayoral Polls.
In a put up shared by AAP’s Punjab unit on social media platform X, it wrote, “Now accept it, BJP. What can be a greater proof than this? See how the Presiding Officer of BJP openly destroyed the flag of democracy by cancelling the votes himself. This is living proof of BJP’s dictatorship.”
In Chandigarh Mayoral Polls, BJP’s candidate was declared winner regardless of AAP-Congress having extra numbers in the Chandigarh municipal council, after eight votes have been declared invalid.
Murder of democracy, says Supreme Court, could order recent election
The Supreme Court which is now listening to the matter termed it a homicide of democracy and noticed that it’s apparent he defaced the ballot papers and that he needs to be prosecuted.
An “appalled” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge Division bench, stated it is not going to enable democracy to be murdered like this and that the apex court docket will order recent elections if not happy with the purity of the ballot course of.
Asking whether or not the Returning Officer(RO) is an officer or a fugitive, the court docket additionally ordered preservation of ballots and the video of the ballot proceedings moreover searching for his private look throughout the subsequent listening to in the Chandigarh mayoral polls case on February 19.
The high court docket gave the order after it took word of the allegations in the plea of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Kuldeep Kumar, who misplaced the mayoral ballot, that the RO squiggled eight ballot papers of councillors of the Congress-AAP alliance, rendering them invalid.
BJP received Chandigarh Mayoral Polls
The BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls on January 30, retaining all three posts, in a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance that alleged tampering with ballot papers by the presiding officer.
Manoj Sonkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) defeated Kumar polling 16 votes towards his rival’s 12 to bag the Mayor’s put up. Eight votes have been declared invalid.
“It is obvious that he(the RO) has defaced the ballot papers. This man should be prosecuted. Look, why is he looking at the camera? Mr Solicitor (General), this is a mockery of democracy and murdering the democracy, we are appalled. Is this the behaviour of a returning officer,” Justice Chandrachud noticed after watching the video recording of the electoral course of.
Lordships have just one aspect of the image, says Solicitor General Tushar Mehta
“Lordships have only one side of the picture. Don’t form an opinion based on something said selectively,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, showing for the Chandigarh authorities, informed the bench which additionally comprised justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
“The moment there is a cross at the top, the man defaces the ballot and looks at the camera. Please tell your returning officer that the Supreme Court is watching him. We will not allow democracy to be murdered like this. The great stabilising force is the purity of the election process and what has happened here,” the bench noticed.
The bench directed that the whole information, pertaining to the election of the mayor, be “sequestered under the custody of the Registrar of the Punjab and Haryana High Court” by 5 pm on Monday by the Deputy Commissioner of Chandigarh, the current custodian of information.
“Produce the whole thing of the video on the following event. We aren’t going by the laws, we would like our conscience to be happy in any other case maintain recent elections.
We will direct the returning officer to conduct a recent election. Why is he wanting on the digicam? He has to do his obligation. Is he an officer or a fugitive? Quietly, he defaces the ballot,” the CJI orally noticed.
The AAP and the Congress hailed the court docket observations, saying it was a “tight slap” on the face of the BJP.
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