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HC seeks Chandigarh admn’s response on plea against senior mayor, deputy mayor’s election
The HC bench of justice Sudhir Singh and justice Harsh Bunger acted on the plea from Gurpreet Singh and Nirmala Devi, the INDIA bloc candidates, and posted the matter for February 26, when it takes up the plea challenging the election of the mayor.
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on Friday sought response from the UT administration on the plea challenging the election of the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of Chandigarh.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Kuljeet Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma were declared senior deputy and deputy mayor respectively by a 16-vote margin after the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress — who were contesting the polls together as part of the INDIA bloc, boycotted the election citing discrepancies in the election of the mayor.
The newly elected mayor serves as the presiding officer for election to the posts of senior deputy and deputy mayor.
The HC bench of justice Sudhir Singh and justice Harsh Bunger acted on the plea from Gurpreet Singh and Nirmala Devi, the INDIA bloc candidates, and posted the matter for February 26, when it takes up the plea challenging the election of the mayor.
The fresh plea in HC by INDIA bloc candidates demands fresh election for all three posts –mayor, senior deputy mayor and mayor.
The petition also seeks directions to the administration and returning officer Anil Masih, for citing reasons behind declaring eight votes invalid.
With regards to fresh elections for the posts of senior deputy and deputy mayor, the plea says these elections were conducted by a person whose own election was “illegal” and should also be set aside. Notably, the Supreme Court had on Monday directed that the entire election record pertaining to mayoral polls be handed over to the registrar of the Punjab and Haryana HC and had summoned Masih.
AAP-Congress joint candidate Kuldeep Dhalor had moved the apex court after he failed to get relief in HC in the petition challenging Sonkar’s election on January 30. The hearing had been deferred till February 26. The SC is to take up the case again on February 19.
Meanwhile, members of the Chandigarh Youth Congress continued their protest against presiding officer Anil Masih and BJP over the alleged rigging in the mayoral polls and held a ‘havan’ as part of a symbolic protest outside the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) building on Friday.
