Chandigarh Mayor Election: SC orders counting of 8 invalid votes as valid

In a major relief to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the supreme court on Tuesday ordered counting of the eight votes, which had been declared invalid by the returning officer in the Chandigarh Mayor Election.

During the hearing held on Tuesday, the Supreme Court strongly reprimanded Returning Officer Anil Masih.

A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud examined eight "invalid" votes in the dispute between BJP and AAP. The court said that these votes will be recounted... will be considered valid" and on the basis of this the results will be declared.

The CJI asked for 8 ballot papers from the Returning Officer and said that he wanted to see 8 invalid ballot papers, after which the ballot papers were given to the court. During this, the Supreme Court said that votes were cast for AAP's Kuldeep Kumar in 8 ballot papers. The court allowed all the parties to see the ballot papers, after which Masih and his lawyer Mukul Rohatgi also saw them.

During this, lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi called it contempt of court and termed it a heinous crime. At the same time, the Chief Justice suggested that the 8 invalid votes should also be considered valid and the result should be declared after re-counting.

BJP's Manoj Sonkar won the Chandigarh Mayor election by 16 votes. He defeated Aam Aadmi Party-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar, who got 12 votes. Controversy arose in the matter when Returning Officer Anil Masih declared eight votes of the alliance partners invalid. After which allegations of tampering in the ballot paper started being made.

After the elections, a video went viral in which BJP's minority cell member Masih was shown marking the ballot papers cast for AAP councillors. The Supreme Court, during a hearing on 5 February, had condemned this act, calling it a "mockery of democracy". Expressing deep concern over the alleged "horse-trading", the Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra had decided to examine the ballot papers and video recording of the counting process.