SC Orders Recounting Of Chandigarh Mayoral Polls

Chandigarh: The Supreme Court, during Tuesday’s hearing on the petition regarding allegations of vote tampering in the Chandigarh mayoral polls, said that the eight ‘defaced’ votes should be considered valid, and a recounting should be conducted.

“What we propose to do is to direct the Deputy Commissioner, who is the prescribed authority, to appoint a fresh Returning Officer. We will ensure that the Returning Officer…may be an officer of the state who is not aligned to any political party. The process shall be taken to its logical conclusion from the stage, which was reached immediately before the declaration of the result. We will ask the Registrar General of the High Court to nominate a judicial officer to oversee the process of the counting of the ballots. And let the results be declared on that, disregarding the defusement, which has been made by the returning officer either in the form of putting any mark or whatever on the ballot papers. Let that be carried out,” a bench presided by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said orally before directing that the ballot papers be produced before the court on Tuesday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious in the Chandigarh mayoral polls on January 30, securing a win over the Aam Aadmi Party-Congress alliance candidate. The returning officer declared eight votes from the coalition partners as invalid, sparking allegations of ballot tampering.

BJP’s Manoj Sonkar clinched the mayor’s post with 16 votes against his rival’s 12, but he later resigned. Additionally, three AAP councillors switched allegiance to the BJP.

On the observation, AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal thanked the top court. “Thank you SC for saving democracy in these difficult times!” he wrote on ‘X’.