CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday hailed the Supreme Court verdict on the Chandigarh mayoral poll, saying "truth finally wins."
The top court overturned the result of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had emerged an unlikely winner, and declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor.
"Finally, truth wins, we welcome the verdict of the Supreme Court on the Chandigarh mayoral elections... CJI declared AAP's Kuldeep Kumar as the mayor while holding 8 votes, rejected by the presiding officer, right," said Mann in a post in Punjabi and in Hindi on X.
Mann further said the BJP got a "befitting reply for its blatant wrongdoing."
He also congratulated the people of Chandigarh for the "great victory of democracy."
Setting aside the Chandigarh mayoral poll, the Supreme Court also ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour", after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election.
The apex court made it clear that it was not quashing the entire electoral exercise and restricting itself to dealing with the wrong-doings in the counting process which led to invalidation of eight votes cast in Kumar's favour.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said it was evident that Masih made deliberate attempt to deface eight ballot papers.