AAP candidate wins the legal battle after SC Verdict

The Supreme Court declares Aam Aadmi party candidate Kuldeep Kumar wins the Chandigarh Mayor election on 20 February, after a legal battle . The Court also filed a case against the returning officer Anil Masih.

Chandigarh Mayoral election

The Mayoral election for Chandigarh Municipal Corporation was held last month. Aam Aadmi Party’s candiade Kuldeep Kumar contested on behalf of INDIA alliance and Manoj Sonkar contested on behalf of BJP. A total of 36 councilors voted in this mayoral election. Out of these 36 votes BJP got 16 votes. The INDIA alliance got 20 votes (AAP-13, Congress-7). Technically INDIA alliance won the election but the election returning officer, Anil Masih, declared 8 votes casted by AAP counselors as invalid. Thereby the BJP candidate won the election with a margin of 4 votes.

In this situation, Kuldeep Kumar approached the Supreme Court and filed a case against the result of Chandigarh Mayor elections. When the case came up for hearing yesterday before the bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices JP Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, the court asked the Election Officer a barrage of questions.

In particular, the Supreme Court questioned the election officer as to why he marked ‘X’ in the Chandigarh mayoral election ballot papers. For which he replied that the ballot papers are tampered so he marked those defected papers to separate it from the rest. This case gained national attention as it was the first time an election official was cross-examined by the country’s Chief Justice. 

Election officer found guilty

During today’s trial, the declared invalid votes were recounted before the judges. It is clear that none of the ballots were tampered and therefore, Election Officer Anil Masik is found guilty of rigging the Chandigarh Mayoral election and making the BJP candidate win. 

AAP’s candidate wins the legal battle

The court then ordered that the 8 votes declared invalid should be counted as valid votes and all the votes should be counted again and the results of the Chandigarh Mayoral election should be declared based on that.

According to the Supreme Court order, the votes were recounted and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Kuldeep Kumar, who contested on behalf of the INDIA alliance, was legally declared as the winner of the Chandigarh Mayoral election.  The court has also directed the Election Officer to give an explanation within 3 weeks.