Chandigarh mayor polls: SC declares AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar winner, sets aside previous result

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday (Feb 20)examined the ballot papers cast in the controversy-ridden Chandigarh mayor polls. During the hearing, Chief Justice of India (CJI)DY Chandrachudfound that all eight dismissed ballot papers were in fact valid and cast in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party candidate.

Later, the Supreme Court bench declared the AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar 'validly elected', while setting aside the previous result.

"The petitioner is declared to be the validly elected candidate for the post of Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation," the bench noted.

"From the result sheet, while the petitioner got 12 votes, the 8 votes which were treated as invalid wrongly, were validly passed in favour of the petitioner. Adding the 8 votes would make his tally 20 votes. The 8th respondent on the other hand polled 16 votes," the bench said.

The mayoral polls took place on January 30, and were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after returning officer Anil Masih declared eight votes of AAP as invalid.The BJP candidate secured 16 votes whereas the joint candidate of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress originally secured 20.

The Supreme Court also grilled Masih for making 'X'marks on the eight ballot papers and later declaring them invalid.

"Mr Masih, yesterday you told us that you put the lines because the ballot papers were defaced. Where is the ballot paper defaced?" the CJI asked.

"We will direct that the votes at the poll shall be recounted and these 8 shall be treated as valid and results be declared on the basis of that," the chief justice remarked, as quoted by Live Law.

Arguments regarding fresh elections

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, representingthe winner of the mayoral election, who resigned on Sunday (Feb 18) ahead of court hearing, pleaded with the SC to conduct fresh elections as "there is a vacancy in the post."

"Even if your lordships come to the conclusion that the election has to be set aside, as per statutory mechanism a fresh election has to be done. That will be fair to us too,"Maninder Singh reportedly told the SC bench.

SeniorAdvocateAM Singhvi, who representedthe AAP candidate, vehemently opposed the appeal, saying the fresh elections would let them avail the benefit of the ongoing 'horse-trading.'

"They want fresh election because they want the benefit of the time during which they possibly got people to defect. On a lighter vein, horse-trading is a term insulting horses," Singhvi said.

It must be noted that just a day before the hearing started on Monday (Feb 19), three of AAP’s councillors - Poonam Devi, Neha and Gurcharan Kala - joined the BJP.

Supreme Court dismissed fresh election plea

The SC noted that setting aside the entire election process would be inappropriate as infirmity was only found in the counting of votes.

"The setting aside of the election process is a wider relief. We are of the view that setting aside the entire election process is inappropriate as the only infirmity is found in the counting process. Setting aside of the entire election process will compound the destruction of the democratic principles which happened due to the conduct of the Presiding Officer," the court said.

(This is a developing story)