What was the role of DC in the Chandigarh mayoral polls?

Singh, however, explained the roles and powers of the prescribed election authority. As per the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulations 1996, the prescribed authority “determines the date, time and place” of the election and nominates a councillor as the presiding authority.

Section 60 (a) and Regulations 6(1) provide that a meeting for the election of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor shall have to be convened by the divisional commissioner or prescribed authority, who shall also nominate a councillor who is not a candidate for such an election to preside over the meeting.

In the present case, the nominated councillor was Anil Masih but he is the general secretary of the BJP’s minority cell.

Former mayor’s questions

Subhash Chawla, who has seen mayoral polls since 1996 and had been mayor twice and a councillor for over 10 years, said, “When a vote is declared invalid, the deputy commissioner, presiding authority and the agent together hold a discussion.”

“If the DC’s job as the prescribed authority is just to fix time and date and nominate the authority, why was he sitting during the entire process to supervise it?” he said while speaking to The Indian Express. “When votes were declared invalid, any neutral person could have consulted senior officers there or the latter should have intervened. After all it was the duty of the Chandigarh administration to conduct the polls in a free and fair manner so that no questions were raised.”

“And all of them here were not voting for the first time.. so you can’t let one person make the election area his own playing field. Moreover, after verifying their background, a neutral person should be nominated…not someone who you know holds allegiance to a party. If votes are declared invalid, the presiding authority has to discuss it with one of the senior officers, he cannot declare it himself. And if an official of the agenda branch is named, will he speak against those in power?” he added.

Secretary Gurinder Sodhi had taken medical leave two days before the date first scheduled for the election and Joint Commissioner Isha Kamboj was designated in his place. Kamboj too was present in the hall when the controversy unfolded.

Counting with officials’ help

Votes are to be counted by the presiding authority with the assistance of municipal officials or employees, according to the 1996 rules.

“The votes for all the candidates shall then be counted by the presiding authority with the assistance of the Municipal Officials or employees as may be designated by the presiding authority and the candidates shall be arranged in the order of the number of votes obtained by each of them,” reads the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulations 1996.

In this case, it is said that the presiding authority designated junior officials of the agenda branch of the municipal corporation office to assist him in the counting of votes.