Mayoral polls: Supreme Court to take up AAP’s plea against High Court order today

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 4

The Supreme Court will take up on Monday AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar’s petition challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order over the Chandigarh mayoral election results that declared BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar the winner.

Kumar’s petition is listed before a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud. Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra are also on the Bench, which will also consider AAP’s demand for fresh polls.

Senior counsel AM Singhvi had on Friday mentioned Kumar’s petition for urgent hearing before a Bench led by CJI Chandrachud which had asked him to send an email as required under the procedure and assured that he would look into it.

Singhvi had alleged that the presiding officer was caught on video smudging the ballots. The political fight between AAP and the BJP over the mayoral polls reached the Supreme Court on Thursday with Kumar challenging the High Court’s order.

BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar had bagged 16 votes against 12 votes polled by the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar after eight votes were declared invalid.

There was no relief for AAP in the order of a Division Bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday, which had demanded fresh polls under the supervision of a retired High Court Judge, alleging tampering with the ballot papers.

The High Court had, however, issued a notice to the Chandigarh Administration and asked it to respond to Kumar’s petition in three weeks. Kumar alleged that in complete departure from the practice and rules, the presiding officer refused to allow nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.

Kumar urged the top court to set aside the election result, alleging it was “a result of complete fraud and forgery laid upon the democratic process”.

“This is not a case of election dispute, but a case of abuse of public office, which destroys the very essence of faith reposed in the officer and is a constitutional wrong and breach of the doctrine of public trust. The case was so egregious that the High Court ought to have passed interim orders,” Kumar submitted.