Haryana: Supreme Court-Ordered Vote Recount Reverses 2022 Panchayat Poll Results
This is the first exercise of its kind ordered by the Supreme Court.
The case stems from panchayat elections held on November 2, 2022 in Panipat's Buana Lakhu village, in which Kuldeep Singh was declared elected over rival Mohit Kumar, the Tribune reported.
The votes were recounted by Supreme Court OSD (Registrar) Kaveri in Kumar and Singh's presence and the entire process was recorded on camera. After the exercise was completed, it was found that Kumar had received 1,051 votes against Singh's 1,000 votes.
"The Deputy Commissioner-cum-Election Officer, Panipat, is, accordingly, directed to issue a notification in this regard within two days declaring the appellant (Mohit Kumar) as the elected Sarpanch of the above-mentioned gram panchayat,' the court said in an order dated August 11.
'The appellant (Mohit Kumar) shall be entitled to assume the said office (of sarpanch) forthwith and perform his duties," the bench, comprising Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and N. Kotiswar Singh said.
After the November elections, Kumar had filed an election petition challenging the result before the Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)-cum-Election Tribunal of Panipat in April. The tribunal on May 7 ordered a recount of votes cast at booth 69 in the village. However, the election tribunal's order was set aside by the Punjab and Haryana high court in July.
Kumar then moved the Supreme Court, which ordered a recount of all votes cast at all booths during the panchayat elections.
"Taking into consideration the peculiar facts and circumstances of this 1 case, the Deputy Commissioner and the District Election Officer, Panipat, Haryana is directed to produce all EVMs before the Registrar of this Court, to be nominated by the Secretary General, at 10 am on 06.08.2025. The nominated Registrar shall recount the votes, not only of the disputed booth but of all the booths. The recounting shall be duly video-graphed. The petitioner as well as the respondent no.1 or their authorized agents shall remain present at the time of recounting," the Supreme Court said in its July 31 order.
A week later, OSD (Registrar) Kaveri recounted the 3,767 votes cast, after which Kumar emerged as the winner, the report said.
'There being prima facie no reason to doubt the report submitted by the OSD (Registrar) of this court, especially when the entire recounting has been duly video-graphed and its result is signed by the representatives of the parties, we are satisfied that the appellant (Mohit Kumar) deserves to be declared as the elected Sarpanch of the gram panchayat, Buana Lakhu village, District Panipat, Haryana in the election held on 22.11.2022,' the Supreme court said, setting aside the high court's verdict.
The court said that the parties can still raise any remaining issues before the election tribunal.
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