Ensuring free & fair election imperative for representative democracy, says SC

Ensuring a free and fair electoral process is imperative for maintaining people’s trust in representative democracy, the Supreme Court has said.

The court had on February 20 declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar the mayor of Chandigarh after overturning the result of the controversial civic poll where the BJP nominee had emerged an unlikely winner amid allegations of rigging of the counting process by the returning officer.

In its judgement, which was uploaded on the apex court website on Thursday, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud noted the top court has consistently held that free and fair elections are a part of the basic structure of the Constitution.

It said elections at the local participatory level act as a “microcosm of the larger democratic structure in the country” and local governments, such as municipal corporations, engage with issues that affect citizens’ daily lives and act as a primary point of contact with representative democracy.

‘The process of citizens electing councillors, who in turn, elect the Mayor, serves as a channel for ordinary citizens to ventilate their grievances through their representatives both directly and indirectly elected,’ the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said.

“Ensuring a free and fair electoral process....., therefore, is imperative to maintain the legitimacy of and trust in representative democracy,” it said.

The bench also directed the registrar (judicial) to issue a ‘notice to show cause to Anil Masih of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation who was the presiding officer at the election which took place on January 30, 2024, as to why steps should not be initiated against him under section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.’

The bench, which observed that Masih, who was the returning officer, shall have an opportunity to file his response to the notice to be issued to him, posted the matter for March 15 for considering his response.

During the hearing before the apex court on February 19, Masih had said he put his mark on eight ballot papers during the counting as he found them defaced.

‘The ballots had not been defaced when the presiding officer put his mark at the bottom. The ballots left no manner of doubt about the candidate for whom the ballot was cast. But that apart, it is evident that the presiding officer is guilty of a serious misdemeanour in doing what he did in his role and capacity as presiding officer,’ the bench said in its verdict. It said in each of the eight ballot papers, which were invalidated by Masih, the votes were duly cast in favour of Kumar.