The Supreme Court has taken a close look at the Chandigarh Mayor elections controversy, stating today that it will not tolerate the “murder of democracy”. The SC Bench consisting of Chief Justice Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Mishra. has directed the Registrar General to secure all the records by today at 5 p.m. On February 12, the court will hear the case.
The Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, had requested that the Presiding Officer be arrested for allegedly “tampering” with voting papers after the party lost last month’s mayoral election to the BJP. Despite the fact that the AAP Congress alliance was ahead in the count, the BJP won the election because eight votes were ruled invalid.

AAP had gone to court, contending that the Returning Officer, Anil Masih, was caught on camera smudging the ballot papers. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, “He is obviously staring into the camera while revealing the ballot paper in the video”. The Chief Justice of India stated during the hearing of the AAP petition that legal action ought to be taken against this officer.

The budget session of the Chandigarh civic body, which was scheduled to be presented on Tuesday, has now been postponed. The judges ruled that the budget could not be presented until further orders.