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Chandigarh Municipal Corporation got a new mayor. In its decision, the Supreme Court declared Aam Aadmi Party candidate Kuldeep Kumar the winner. At the same time, Returning Officer Anil Masih was held responsible for spoiling the elections. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court also saw the ballot papers which were declared invalid by Anil Masih. The court said that what Anil Masih has done is against democratic rules. If invalid votes are added then AAP candidate has 20 votes, in this case Kuldeep Kumar is the winner.
There was chaos in the Chandigarh Mayor elections from nomination to results. This increased further after the announcement of the victory of the BJP candidate. When AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar filed a petition in the Supreme Court and the hearing of the case began, layers of it were revealed. A three-member bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud also saw the eight ballot papers which were declared invalid by Anil Masih. The bench clearly found Returning Officer Anil Masih guilty. The court said that Masih also spoiled the election and also lied in front of the court, hence a notice was also issued against him for giving false information to the court.
Why was there an uproar over the results?
Chandigarh Mayor elections were held on January 30, in which BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar was declared the winner. Aam Aadmi Party and Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar had raised questions on the results. Actually, there are 35 votes in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, after the elections, Returning Officer Anil Masih said that in the elections, BJP got only 16 votes and Aam Aadmi Party alliance got only 12 votes. Anil Masih had declared 8 votes invalid. All these votes were from the alliance.
This is how the ruckus increased
The votes cast in favor of BJP were of 14 BJP councilors, one vote of Shiromani Akali Dal and one vote of MP. Aam Aadmi Party had 13 votes and Congress had seven votes, but 8 of them were invalidated. The chaos only increased from here. When a video related to the election process surfaced, it showed that Presiding Officer Anil Masih was writing something on the ballot papers. After this, Anil Masih was accused that he himself had made the marks on the ballot papers. In such a situation, AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
Who is Anil Masih who became a villain?
Anil Masih is a nominated councilor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation who was nominated in 2022 on the recommendation of Administrator Banwari Lal Purohit. Since then he participates in all the meetings of the corporation. Anil Masih joined BJP in 2011. After this, he became active in the party and remained close to the party’s former state president Arun Sood. After this, Anil Masih was made the General Secretary in BJP Minority Morcha. When the mayor’s election was held, Chandigarh DC Vinay Pratap Singh called a meeting of councilors in terms of Section 38 on January 18 and Anil Masih was nominated as the presiding officer for the election. The agenda of this meeting was to elect the Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The matter first reached the High Court
A petition was filed in the High Court under Article 226, seeking direction to the Deputy Commissioner to ensure that there are free and fair elections and appointments to the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Corporation. A commissioner should be appointed under the auspices of the court to monitor the election process. On this, the High Court had ordered video recording of the entire voting process and said that Chandigarh Police will ensure free and fair elections. Elections took place and Anil Masih was seen doing something on the ballot paper. The matter reached the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court had said murder of democracy
The first hearing of the case in the Supreme Court was held on February 5, in which the court had termed the actions taken in the Chandigarh Mayor elections as murder of democracy. In its decision, the Supreme Court had also said that the returning officer should be prosecuted. Along with this, a three-member bench in the Supreme Court had canceled the meeting to be held on February 7.
What were you writing on the ballot paper?
While hearing the case on February 19, the Supreme Court had strongly reprimanded Anil Masih. The CJI had asked for the invalidated ballot papers and also asked for the video. Masih was also asked why he was putting a cross on the ballot paper. Masih replied that I was not writing, on this the CJI said that it was very clear that you were marking X in the ballot.
The process of democracy cannot be thwarted by deceit
While hearing the case, Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that the process of democracy cannot be thwarted by deceit. According to Article 142, the court is bound by duty, which states that it should do complete justice. The court said that the petitioner got 12 votes, eight votes were declared illegal. This was done wrongly. The votes which were invalidated were all cast in favor of the petitioner. The weakness in the election process was found at the stage when the presiding officer counted the votes. If the entire election process is canceled then it will increase the damage to democratic principles. After this, the court considered the invalid votes valid and declared AAP candidate Kuldeep Singh the winner.
Chandigarh got two mayors in less than a month. First through ‘elections’ and second through the decision of the Supreme Court. The country’s biggest court declared the defeated Aam Aadmi Party candidate the winner of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation ‘election’. Due to this decision, BJP candidate and current Mayor Manoj Sonkar will have to pack up his bags from the Municipal Corporation office within three weeks.
The court found that Returning Officer Anil Masih spoiled the election and, ignoring democratic rules, gave victory to the BJP candidate. While overturning the election results of January 30, a three-member bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra used the powers of the Supreme Court under Article 142.
What is Article 142?
Article 142 of the Indian Constitution gives the power to the Supreme Court that the court can pass orders for complete justice in any case. This provision of the article also gives the right to implement the order of the Supreme Court in the entire country. With its help, the Supreme Court has been issuing guidelines, directions and orders from time to time to the governments and other departments.
This provision establishes the Supreme Court as the guardian of the Constitution, where the court can use this article in case of violation of fundamental rights enjoyed by citizens and flaws in other laws.
Use of Article 142
Article 142 has been used by the Supreme Court on many occasions. Be it the guidelines to the government regarding providing free and compulsory education to children in the age group of 6 to 14 years or the order of release of undertrial prisoners after completing half of their sentence, the Supreme Court did this under the provisions of 142.
When an order was given to form a committee to investigate the 2G spectrum scam or to cancel the licenses of 214 coal mines, the Supreme Court resorted to Article 142. The Supreme Court was able to give the order for permanent commission to women in the Indian Army only under Article 142.
