Urgent hearing in SC on Chandigarh mayoral poll

February 02, 2024 11:52

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider an AAP councillor's request seeking urgent hearing of his plea challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that refused to grant any interim relief to the party seeking fresh mayoral polls in Chandigarh.

The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for councillor Kuldeep Kumar, a candidate for the mayor's post. Singhvi submitted that the returning officer was caught on video smudging the ballots.

"We will list it... we will look at it," the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said. The BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls, retaining all three posts, a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance that alleged tampering with ballot papers by the presiding officer. On Wednesday, a division bench of Justices Sudhir Singh and Harsh Bunger of the high court denied interim relief the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which alleged that ballot papers had been tampered with and sought fresh polls under the supervision of a retired judge of the court.

The high court issued notices to the Chandigarh administration, the municipal corporation, presiding officer Anil Masih and newly-elected mayor Manoj Sonkar, among others, asking then to file their replies within three weeks.

AAP councillor Kumar filed the appeal in the top court against the denial of interim relief and listing of the plea after three weeks.

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