NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday the defeated AAP councillor's plea challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order that refused to grant any interim relief to the party seeking fresh mayoral polls in Chandigarh.
A three-judge bench of the Apex Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud and also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, would hear the appeal of the defeated AAP candidate, Kuldeep Kumar on Monday, February 05, according to the causelist of the Supreme Court.
Senior advocate and noted legal expert of India, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for AAP’s councillor, Kumar, had on Friday mentioned the matter before a bench of the Apex Court, headed by the CJI Dr Chandrachud, who said, he would look into the matter and list the case for hearing.
Dr Singhvi submitted that the returning officer was caught on video smudging the ballots.
The councillor of the defeated AAP, Kumar had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court on February 01, challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order refusing to grant any interim relief to the party seeking fresh mayoral polls in Chandigarh.
BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was elected as the Mayor on January 30, after he bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate Kumar.
Kumar, a candidate for the mayor's post had lost the polls alleging that the BJP won the election after one-fourth of the votes were scrapped.
Kumar and the AAP had alleged that the BJP had tampered with ballot papers and sought fresh polls under the supervision of a retired judge of the court.
The Punjab Haryana HC, had earlier issued a notice after hearing the plea of Kumar, to the Chandigarh administration and sought its response within three weeks.
Kumar had moved the Supreme Court pleading for a direction for immediate stay on the election result in which a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate was declared elected as Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
Kumar in his petition alleged fraud in BJP’s win and forgery in rejection of the eight votes.
