The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled the Aam Aadmi Party’s Kuldeep Kumar the lawful winner of last month’s Chandigarh mayoral election, ending weeks of controversy after the Returning Officer, Anil Masih, was caught on camera deliberately invalidating and discarding eight votes in his favour.

Mr Masih also faces a contempt of court action – he has been issued a ‘show cause’ notice – that has been initiated by the top court, which came down strongly on the former BJP Minority Cell member, who was repeatedly warned of prosecution if he was found to have lied to the court in any way.

Should Mr Masih be prosecuted – in an earlier hearing the Supreme Court called his actions a “mockery of democracy” and indicated it would do just that – it will be a historic first in independent India, and a stern warning to potential hijacking of poll results weeks before the Lok Sabha election.

The landmark judgement also means the AAP and the Congress – which contested the election in alliance with each other – have recorded the INDIA bloc’s first win as it bids to defeat the BJP.

As much as the court’s order will be welcomed by the AAP and Kuldeep Kumar, it will also be a shot in the arm for the Congress and the INDIA bloc, which is on the verge of breaking up, less than a year after it was formed, amid disagreements between members on seat-sharing and poll prep details.

Earlier today the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, examined the eight discarded ballot papers. Mr Masih had on Monday told the court he had marked these eight because they had been “defaced” by the councillors themselves, and he wanted to ensure the votes were not counted.

Under the law, double-marked ballot papers, or those with marks that identify the lawmaker, or are marked in any other way, are considered “invalid” and cannot be included in the counting process.

The court began today’s hearing by asking Mr Masih to point out how the ballots were “defaced”. Appearing for the Returning Officer, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, pointed to small dots and replied, “… (so) he assessed certain ballots were invalid. He is not a thief… it was his assessment.”

The court was distinctly unconvinced, and noted “All eight have received the stamp for Kuldeep Kumar… the votes are cast for Mr Kumar. What he (Mr Masih) does is… he puts a single line…”

Controversy over the results of the Chandigarh mayoral race broke after a video of the counting process was widely shared online. The video showed Mr Masih surreptitiously marking some ballot papers. Halfway through his act he glances up and realises his actions are being recorded by CCTVs.

The video triggered furious protests by the AAP and the Congress.

Chandigarh Mayoral Election

The BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was declared the winner after the contentious counting of votes.

Polling officials gave Mr Sonkar 16 votes to Mr Kumar’s 12; had the eight votes been counted, as the Supreme Court has directed, the AAP candidate would have recorded a comfortable win.

Since then three AAP councillors have sided with the BJP, significantly changing the equation in this election. The BJP now has 19 votes in the 35-member house, including that of the Chandigarh Lok Sabha MP, who has voting rights as an ex-officio member. The AAP-Congress have only 17.

If the court had ordered a re-election – as was sought by Mr Sonkar – the BJP would have had a clear advantage.

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Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.

The Supreme Court made history today, ordering the last step of Chandigarh’s Mayoral election in the courtroom and witnessing the counting of votes. At the end of it, Aam Aadmi Party’s Kuldeep Kumar was declared the Mayor by the judges.  

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud — which examined the ballot papers this morning and slammed the Returning Officer who invalidated eight votes by defacing them — refused to leave the subsequent part of the electoral process to the authorities.

The BJP appeal that a fresh election be called was also turned down.

This court is “duty bound to ensure that the democratic process is not set at naught by such subterfuges,” the judges said.

“We are therefore of the view that the Court must step in such exceptional circumstances to ensure that the basic democratic mandate is ensured,” the bench added.

After the counting, the judges said, “The petitioner is declared to be the validly elected candidate for the post of Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation,” before ordered legal proceedings against the erring poll official.

Anil Masih faces the possibility of contempt of court. He has to show cause within three weeks why action should not be taken against him.

The results overturned the BJP victory declared at the end of the hugely controversial election in January, which was challenged by the AAP candidate.

A video of the counting, where the Returning Officer was seen defacing eight ballot papers while glancing at the room’s CCTV camera, proved the clincher.

The furious judges called it “murder of democracy” and took the matter in their hands. “⁠It is clearly visible in the video that he is looking into the camera and defacing the ballot paper… Legal action should be taken against this officer,” the Chief Justice of India said.

The BJP had swept the mayoral polls, in a setback to the AAP-Congress alliance, which had claimed the election was an acid test for the INDIA bloc. But last evening, BJP Mayor Manoj Sonkar stepped down from the post.

The Supreme Court move, though, could be a temporary reprieve for AAP, whose three councillors have defected to the BJP.

Slamming the BJP for “dictatorship going on inside the country”, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said, “all the institutions are being crushed… hence this decision of the Supreme Court is very important”.

“The Hon’ble Supreme Court’s decision on the farcical election for the Chandigarh Mayor will go a long way to save Indian democracy. The entire election process was a complete farce, which has been duly exposed with this historic verdict!” Congress’s KC Venugopal posted on X, formerly Twitter.