File Photo: Returning Officer for Chandigarh mayoral election Anil Masih appears before the Supreme Court, in New Delhi, on February 20.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Anil Masih, the former returning officer in the Chandigarh mayoral polls, on Friday tendered an unconditional apology in connection with his alleged role for defacing eight ballot papers.
"We have tendered an unconditional apology in the matter. He (Masih) will withdraw the first affidavit and surrender to the magnanimity of this court. This is an unconditional apology," senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi submitted before a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The court, however, fixed the matter for further hearing to the second week of July.
On February 20, the Supreme Court had in its order quashed the election result declared by Masih and ordered that the AAP Candidate, Kuldeep Kumar, be declared the winner of the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
While issuing show cause notice to Masih, the court had observed that he had deliberately defaced ballots voted in favour of Aam Aadmi Party's Kuldeep Kumar.
The bench had slammed Masih for his misconduct in the case, and noted democracy was thwarted at the grassroots, that too, by misusing the office of the returning officer to change the course of the mayoral election results.
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