What happened with the Chandigarh Mayoral election and why did the Supreme Court have to intervene?
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00:00Did you or did you not put an X mark on certain ballot papers?
00:03No, no. What are you saying, sir?
00:05Please answer my question.
00:06This was the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachur,
00:10questioning presiding officer Anil Massey
00:12after he was seen allegedly defacing the ballot papers
00:16used in the Chandigarh mayoral election.
00:18Massey had been a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2015,
00:22but the BJP unit in Chandigarh removed his name from the minority cell
00:26after the election controversy happened.
00:28He presided over the process of electing a mayor for Chandigarh
00:31and announced a BJP candidate as the winner.
00:34But the Supreme Court pulled him up on 19th February 2024.
00:38I want to ask you, what were you doing looking at the camera
00:40and putting your marks to cross out the ballot paper?
00:44Sir, they are doing their work.
00:46They are very good people.
00:47These homesteaders were making so much noise.
00:50Camera, camera, camera, all these.
00:53That's why I was looking at the cameras they are talking about.
00:55That's why I was looking at the cameras.
00:57The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress accused Massey of rigging the election,
01:01which took place on 30th January.
01:04CCTV footage captured Massey tampering with the ballot papers.
01:08He dismissed eight votes of the India bloc as invalid
01:11and the BJP's Manoj Sonkar was announced the winner.
01:15In the mayor's election, 20 votes were with the India bloc
01:19and only 16 votes were with the BJP.
01:24Scenes of chaos emerged from election day
01:27and Massey said AAP and Congress tried to derail the election.
01:30The Chandigarh Police's Marshal Deputy from the Chandigarh Administration
01:34intervened and got the ballot papers removed.
01:38Some of the ballot papers were torn during the process.
01:42Kuldeep Kumar, who was the mayoral candidate for AAP,
01:46moved to the Supreme Court after the Punjab and Haryana High Courts
01:49refused to stay the election results.
01:51On 5th February, the Supreme Court said it was obvious that he defaced the ballot papers.
02:00The apex court had asked Massey to show up on 19th February and explain his conduct.
02:05One day before his appearance, Sonkar resigned from the mayor's post.
02:09Hours after his resignation, three AAP councillors switched over to the BJP.
02:14The AAP accused the BJP of poaching them through unfair means.
02:18But this horse trading did not have a bearing on the final outcome
02:21because the Supreme Court decided that AAP's Kuldeep Kumar
02:24would become the mayor of Chandigarh.
02:26That is the day this exchange between Massey and the CJI happened.
02:30Why were you defacing the ballot papers?
02:32Sir, I...
02:33You know that your function is to sign the ballot papers.
02:39You can sign them. You can sign every ballot paper.
02:42But why were you doing it in such a way that the ballot you had chosen...
02:47You say that you are putting a tick or a cross on it.
02:51Why were you doing that?
02:52Sir, I am repeating that again.
02:55When I saw the ballots, they were pressed in such a way
02:58that it was quite visible.
02:59But they tried to give a mark.
03:02That is the only evidence, sir. I was not...
03:04Why were you putting a mark on those ballots?
03:08Sir, actually, to make this...
03:12I think it was defaced by the candidate.
03:16The Supreme Court observed that Massey lied to the court
03:19and ordered proceedings against him.
03:21So, it's admitted that you put your marks on the ballots?
03:24Yes, sir.
03:26And on eight ballots, basically?
03:27Yes, and they snatched and destroyed immediately.
03:31His answer to what he did is very clear as to what he did.
03:34He has to be prosecuted.
03:36I think interfering with electoral democracy...
03:38Electoral democracy by referring officers is the gravest possible thing.