New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party Councillor Kuldeep Kumar on Thursday filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s refusal to grant an immediate stay on election result in which a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate was declared elected as Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
The petition before the top court seeks a stay on the operation of the notification that has been or may be issued for the appointment of Manoj Sonkar as Mayor of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh.
BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was elected as the Mayor on Tuesday after he bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate Kumar. Eight votes were rejected in the process as invalid.
Kumar then approached the Punjab and Haryana High court against the election and sought a stay on the result. A division bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger of the High Court after recording the submissions of the petitioner and respondents issued notice and listed the matter for hearing after three weeks.
The AAP Councillor had prayed for a fresh election in a free and fair manner under the supervision of a retired High Court judge. The petitioner alleged that in complete departure of the practice and rules, the Presiding Officer Anil Masih refused to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.
“The Presiding Officer in most flimsy manner addressed to the house that he does not want any assistance from the members nominated by the parties contesting the election and he will count the vote himself. The voices were raised by the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress but their requests were not heeded, but surprisingly the Deputy Commissioner, Respondent No.2 and the Prescribed Authority, who was also in the same capacity in the last year’s election remained mum,” the petitioner had said in the High Court.
The petitioner said that Since the High Court erred in not granting any interim relief to them on an urgent basis, in the form of a stay on the outcome of election for the post of Mayor or directing the preservation of electoral records we have approached the Apex Court now.
The matter is likely to come up before the Supreme Court on Friday.
