The apex court also ordered the preservation of the entire record of the election process, including ballot papers, videography and other material through the Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High court.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said it is obvious that the returning officer has defaced the ballot papers and that it will not allow the democracy to be murdered.
“Is this the way he conducts the elections? This is a mockery of democracy. This is the murder of democracy. We are appalled. We will not allow democracy to be murdered this way. The man defaces ballots the moment he sees a cross at the bottom. This man should be prosecuted. Is this the behaviour of the returning officer?” the top court said.
The Supreme Court also deferred till further orders the meeting of the Chandigarh Corporation slated to be held on February 7.
The court watched the video of the election in which the returning officer is purportedly seen defacing the ballots and made its observations.
“Tell the Returning Officer that the Supreme Court is watching him. We will not allow democracy to be murdered like this. The great force in this country is the purity of the electoral process, but what has happened here?” said the bench.
The top court also issued notice on a petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party’s councillor Kuldeep Dhalor, who had lost the mayor election to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Manoj Sonkar on January 30.
The apex court’s remarks critical of the Anil Masih came while hearing the plea filed by the AAP councillor after the BJP won the mayor election despite not having enought numbers.
BJP’s Sonkar bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by Kumar, despite having 20 councillors. Masih allegedly defaced and disqualified eight votes of the INDIA alliance.
