Who is Anil Masih, the Chandigarh poll presiding officer mired in controversy

An active member of the BJP minority wing, Masih was appointed as the general secretary of the minority morcha in 2021.

As the tussle over the Chandigarh mayoral polls rages, presiding officer Anil Masih has found himself in the thick of things.

He's facing the heat in the ballot tampering row.

Masih has been accused of "tampering" with some ballot papers during the January 30 mayoral polls which led to eight votes being declared invalid.

BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar defeated AAP's Kuldeep Kumar to the mayor's post, polling 16 votes against his rival's 12.

As per media reports, Masih joined the Bharatiya Janata Party a few years back and has been regular at all party events since.

In October 2022, he was nominated as a councilor in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation House, after which he gained a reputation in the party.

As per a report in The Indian Express, Masih was in line for the BJP ticket for Chandigarh civic polls in December 2021 from Ward number 13. However, after around a year, he became one of the nine councilors in the general house of the Chandigarh MC.

An active member of the BJP minority wing, he was appointed as the general secretary of the minority morcha in 2021, reported Hindustan Times.

The ongoing controversy that Masih has found himself neck-deep in is not his first. Back in 2018, he had reportedly been barred from the Church of North India (CNI) owing to his offensive remarks at a community meeting. However, he was reinstated by the Bishop of CNI two years later.

As per HT, Masih studied at a government school growing up and went to DAV college for graduation. His wife is a manager at one of the girls’ hostels at Punjab Engineering Hostel and the family stays at the hostel barracks on campus. While Masih worked at a private company in the past, he has been without an active job for many years and is completely “dedicated to politics”.

The Supreme Court on Monday rapped the Returning Officer who conducted the recent Chandigarh mayoral polls, observing it is obvious he defaced the ballot papers and that he should be prosecuted, adding his action amounted to the "murder” and “mockery" of democracy.

An “appalled” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge Division bench, said he would not allow democracy to be murdered like this and that the apex court would order fresh elections if not satisfied with the purity of the poll process.

Asking whether the Returning Officer (RO) is an officer or a fugitive, the court also ordered the preservation of ballots and the video of the poll proceedings, besides seeking his personal appearance during the next hearing in the Chandigarh mayoral polls case on February 19 to explain his behaviour.

The Supreme Court, on Monday, directed the preserving of the original records of the Chandigarh mayoral election, saying it was obvious that the returning officer defaced the ballot papers in what was a "murder" and "mockery" of democracy.

(With PTI inputs)