Congress candidates move High Court over election process for Chandigarh Municipal Corporation's Senior Deputy Mayor, Deputy Mayor

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], February 26 (ANI): Congress candidates for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation have moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the notification for election for February 27, stating that the entire process should start "afresh".
The petition has been filed by Gurpreet Singh and Nirmala Devi, who are Congress candidates for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.
Advocate Karanbir Singh, representing the Congress candidates, told ANI that they have challenged the notification issued by the Deputy Commissioner that polling for the two posts will be held on February 27.
The Supreme Court had declared AAP Councillor Kuldeep Kumar as the winner of the Chandigarh Mayoral polls last week. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra quashed the decision by Returning Officer Anil Masih through which be declared BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Sonkar as Chandigarh Mayor on January 30.
Karanbir Singh said the fresh elections should be held "in a fair and transparent manner" to the two posts.
"As per Supreme Court orders, the elections have to be held in accordance with the law and regulations," he said.
He also said that the matter will be taken up by the court on Tuesday morning.
The Supreme Court last week found that the Returning Officer had on January 30 deliberately defaced eight ballots that were cast in favour of Kuldeep Kumar so as to make them invalid.
The apex court had physically examined the ballot papers and found that they are not defaced. It directed that Kuldeep Kumar be declared as mayor with 20 votes (12 votes which he received and 8 which were for him and were defaced by Masih).
"The eight votes which were treated as invalid by making those markings... counting the eight votes for the petitioner (AAP candidate Kumar) will make him have 20 votes. We direct that the election result by the Returning Officer is quashed. The petitioner is declared to be the winner of the Chandigarh mayoral polls," the bench had said in its order.
The elections for the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor are to be presided over by Chandigarh Mayor Kuldeep Kumar.
Congress and AAP, who are part of INDIA bloc, had reached an understanding under which it was decided that AAP will fight the post of Mayor and Congress of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor (ANI)