The Supreme Court on Monday (February 19) ordered the prosecution of returning officer Anil Masih in the Chandigarh Mayor election that was held on January 30, and said that he was interfering with the election process. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud rapped the returning officer calling the entire episode a "serious matter" and asked why he was looking into the camera and putting marks in the ballot papers.
"This is a very serious matter. if there is any falsehood, you will be prosecuted .. Why were you looking into the camera and putting marks in the ballot papers?," the CJI asked. To the question, the RO said that all the ballot papers were already defaced and he was only marking them. "there were so many cameras that i was just looking at them," he said.
The CJI said that it was clear that he was putting X mark on the ballot papers.
"Did you or did you not put x marks on ballot papers?" he questioned.
"There were eight ballot papers, so that they were not mixed with the rest," the RO responded.
The CJI said that as per the rule, he can sign the papers but cannot tick or draw the X mark on the ballot papers.
CJI reads out rule and orders prosecution
"Rule 11 says you can sign.. but which rule says that you can put ticks or X in those ballot papers.. why were you putting marks on those ballot papers?" the CJI asked.
The RO said that he did so to distinguish between the two ballot papers.
"That means you marked it. he has to be prosecuted. in an electoral democracy this cannot be allowed. We will ask the deputy commissioner to appoint a new returning officer who is not associated to any political party and let the process resume from the stage from it had stopped and the registrar general of HC shall oversee the process of counting etc," the CJI said.
"This whole business of horse trading which is going on is very disturbing. Let the entire video of counting of the votes be also produced tomorrow noon. Anil Masih says he marked 8 ballot papers apart from signing others and says that it was done to mark the defaced ballot papers. We are disturbed with the horse trading which had taken place," he added.
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