‘Where are the ballot papers defaced?’: CJI pulls up Chandigarh mayor poll official

Anil Masih, Returning Officer for Chandigarh mayoral election, at the Supreme Court for a hearing.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Tuesday lashed out at Chandigarh mayor poll returning officer Anil Masih after the latter defended his act of marking the ballot papers.

“All the ballot papers were defaced. I was just marking them. There were so many cameras that I was just looking at them,” Masih had told the CJI-led Supreme Court bench on Monday.

On Tuesday, the CJI asked the returning officer,”Mr.Masih, yesterday you told us that you put the lines because the ballot papers were defaced. Where is the ballot paper defaced?”

“Where is the ballot paper defaced?,” CJI asked the returning officer, saying the bench would like to see ballots which were declared as ‘invalid’ by Masih.

According to ANI, he showed the ballots to the lawyers and observed that all the eight had received the stamp for Aam Aadmi Party candidate Kuldeep Kumar and the votes were cast for him.

“What the Returning Officer Anil Masih does is, he puts a single line,” the CJI remarked. The top court ordered recounting of votes including the eight ballots that were rejected by the returning officer.

On Monday, the CJI had pulled up Masih and asked him why he was looking into the camera and putting ‘X’ marks on the ballot papers. The returning officer was accused of tampering with the ballots that had resulted in the victory of BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar, who had resigned ahead of the hearing.

“You can sign the ballot papers. But why you were putting ‘X’ on those ballot papers,” the CJI had asked, directing that the ballot papers be presented in the court for examination.

Defeated AAP mayoral candidate Kuldeep Kumar had moved the top court challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order which refused to grant any interim relief to the party which sought a fresh poll.

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