Supreme Court declares AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar winner of Chandigarh mayoral election

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court today announced Kuldeep Kumar, the candidate from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), as the rightful winner of the Chandigarh mayoral polls, overturning the results of the January 30th elections.

The court's ruling stemmed from the invalidation of eight votes by returning officer Anil Masih, which the court deemed as valid and in favor of Kuldeep Kumar. With these votes accounted for, the court directed Kuldeep Kumar to be declared the mayor with a total of 20 votes.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, leading the bench, instructed the Registrar Judicial to issue a notice to Anil Masih for perjury proceedings due to his false statements made before the court. During the proceedings, CJI Chandrachud criticized Masih's claim that he had marked the ballots with an 'X' to indicate they were defaced, emphasizing that the ballots remained unmarked until after the poll results were announced. Furthermore, he questioned Masih's rationale for marking the ballots, suggesting it was unnecessary and potentially misleading.