Chandigarh mayoral poll: SC orders recounting, 8 ballots to be considered valid

The Supreme Court will order a recount of the ballots cast in the mayoral election last month, including eight that were deemed "invalid" by Returning Officer Anil Masih after he was seen on video "marking" ballot papers in favor of the Aam Aadmi Party.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday examined the eight ‘defaced’ ballot papers of the Chandigarh mayoral poll and video recording of the counting process following the contentious victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Pulling up returning officer Anil Masih for ‘contempt of court”, the court said ordered to treat the eight invalidated ballots as valid.

The rejected ballots "shall be recounted... treated as valid" and "results declared on the basis of that," according to a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. After the returning officer ruled eight of the coalition partners' votes to be fraudulent, the BJP easily defeated the AAP-Congress alliance candidate in the Chandigarh mayoral election on January 30. The move drew accusations of tampering with eight ballots.

Expressing serious concerns about "horse-trading," the Supreme Court said on Monday that it could think about declaring the results of previous polls rather than requesting new ones. A bench including Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra stated on Monday, "We are deeply concerned about the horse-trading which is taking place."

"Yesterday you said these ballot paper were defaced. Can you show us where?" the Chief Justice asked, as he showed the eight to Masih and his lawyer, as well as other parties in the hearing.

"All eight have received the stamp for Kuldeep Kumar (the AAP candidate)... the votes are cast for Kumar. What he (Mr Masih) does is... he puts a single line. Just one line, as seen in the video." he added.

The bench also ordered the Punjab and Haryana High Court's registrar general to assign a judicial officer to transport the records securely to New Delhi and present them before the court on Tuesday.