High Court Issues Notice On Plea Against Senior & Deputy Mayor Elections Amid Controversy Surrounding Chandigarh Mayor's Election

Amid the controversy surrounding election of BJP's Manoj Sonkar as Chandigarh's Mayor, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notices on a plea challenging the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor election conducted by him.

Sonkar's election is pending challenge before the High Court and the Supreme Court is seized of a petition seeking a stay on his win. "This is a murder of democracy," the Top Court had remarked on perusing the video of vote count whereby Sonkar had emerged victorious on January 30.

On the same day, Sonkar had proceeded to conduct elections for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor. It is alleged that 18 councillors, who were also voters in the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor election, walked out from the room in protest and thereafter the Mayor conducted the election in their absence.

A division bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger has issued notices to the UT Chandigarh, Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner, Joint Commissioner, DGP, Presiding Officer, Mayor and others and asked them to file the response.

Justice Singh also orally remarked that it will be mindful of what the Supreme Court decides so far as Sonkar's position is concerned.

"The question will be what will happen to the (validity of the mayor election) mayor, if he stays then the question arises whether they (councillors contesting senior and deputy mayor election) waived off their rights by walking out?...If the mayor election is set aside then the question of waiving off their right to vote will not arise...let's see what happens," Justice Singh orally said.

The plea seeks directions to set aside the election of the Mayor and also the election of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation held subsequently on the same day with the "illegally & fraudulently elected Mayor as Presiding Authority in the chair."

Two candidates contesting for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor election have moved the High Court alleging that video footage of the election process points towards a pre-planned intention of hijacking and derailing the democratic process in the Mayoral elections by various authorities including the Presiding officer and elected Mayor, by resorting to arbitrary and illegal acts of forgery, which include invalidating of votes by tampering the ballot papers.

The plea added that although the recently elected Mayor presided over further elections for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, his own elevation was illegal and invalid. The petitioners, who were contesting for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor, challenged the election of the Mayor and refused to hold elections under him, the plea added. It was submitted that when the protest of the petitioners and their associate councillors to conduct the elections in a fair and transparent manner fell on deaf ears of the prescribed authority, the petitioners and 18 other councillors (voters), who were demanding a recount of votes, walked out to protest against tampering of the ballot papers.

"Within minutes, the illegally elected Mayor conducted the elections of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor in their absence," added the plea.

AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the High Court to list his petition after three weeks without granting an immediate stay of the results.

He moved the High Court alleging vote tampering in the Chandigarh Mayor Elections, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Manoj Sonkar emerged victorious on January 30. The BJP candidate secured 16 votes against the 12 votes received by Kuldeep Kumar, the candidate backed by Congress and AAP. The Presiding Officer rejected 8 votes as invalid.

He sought setting aside the impugned election result "as the same is a result of complete fraud and forgery laid upon the democratic process" and prayed for holding of fresh elections in a free and fair manner under the supervision of a retired High Court Judge.

On January 31, the High Court denied his prayer to dissolve the functioning of the office until further orders. "Whether counting was proper, whether procedure was followed or not...These are all questions of facts," it orally remarked.

The matter is now deferred to February 26.

Advocates Rajiv Sharma, Karanbir Singh, Manoj Gujral, Ferry Sofat for the petitioners.

Anil Mehta, senior standing counsel for UT Chandigarh, Prateek Gupta advocate for Commissioner and Joint Commissioner, MC.

Title: GURPREET SINGH V. UNION TERROTORY OF CHANDIGARH & Ors.