High Court issues notice to Chandigarh over election of mayor’s deputies

Chandigarh, February 9

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today put the Union Territory of Chandigarh on notice on a petition filed by two elected councilors, seeking directions for setting aside the election of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

A Bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger fixed February 26 as the next date of hearing in the matter. In their petition, Gurpreet Singh and Nirmla Devi contended that the election was held the same day as the mayoral poll, with illegally and fraudulently elected mayor as the presiding authority.

Directions were also sought for holding fresh elections in transparent and fair manner in accordance with the prescribed rules and regulation under the supervision of a retired Judge of the high court.

Giving reasons, the petitioners contended the election on January 30 was conducted by “resorting to forgery and tampering of ballot papers and by violating the rules, procedures, precedents and doctrine of natural justice”.

The petitioners said the recently elected mayor had to preside over further elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. But the very elevation of the newly elected mayor was illegal and invalid.

The petitioners challenged the election of the mayor and refused to hold elections under him. “When the protest of the petitioners and associate councillors to conduct the election in a fair and transparent manner fell on deaf ears of the prescribed authority, the petitioners and 18 other councilors demanding recounting of votes had to walk out to protest against the tampering of the ballot paper to illegally elect the mayor. Within minutes, the illegally elected mayor conducted the elections in their absence,” the petition added. — TNS

Youth Congress workers conduct havan

Chandigarh: The city Youth Congress on Friday organised a ‘Buddhi Shuddhi Mahayagya’ at the Municipal Corporation office under leadership of party president Manoj Lubana to protest the manner in which the mayoral poll was conducted. “We have organised a havan for redemption the Administration’s wisdom,” he said. — TNS

AAP hunger strike enters its sixth day

The hunger strike of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) against the “murder of democracy” allegedly carried out by the BJP during the mayoral elections entered its sixth day on Friday. Councillors Suman Sharma, Seema, Ravi Paswan and Kamaljeet Kaur sat on the strike on Friday.