Chandigarh: CJI Chandrachud overturns result, declares I.N.D.I.A. candidate new mayor

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 20 February, overturned the result of the Chandigarh mayoral polls in which the BJP candidate had emerged an unlikely winner, and declared the 'defeated' AAP–Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar the new city mayor.

It also ordered the prosecution for "misdemeanour" of the returning officer for the polls, Anil Masih—incidentally also a BJP leader. The court found serious fault in his conduct of the 30 January elections.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said it was evident that Masih made a deliberate attempt to deface eight ballot papers.

The apex court, however, made it clear that it was not quashing the entire electoral exercise. It stated that it would restrict itself to dealing with the wrongdoings in the counting process that led to the invalidation of eight votes cast in Kumar's favour.

The BJP had ostensibly won the mayoral poll earlier, defeating the comfortably placed AAP–Congress candidate representing the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance bloc, Kuldeep Kumar.

This was after the returning officer, Masih, had declared 'invalid' eight of the votes of coalition partners, drawing accusations of him tampering with the ballot papers.

Manoj Sonkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had ostensibly defeated Kuldeep Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival's 12. Sonkar, however, resigned subsequently, while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP.