Reeling under depression, anxiety: Anil Masih in affidavit ahead of SC hearing

Anil Masih, the Presiding Officer who allegedly defaced ballot papers in the Chandigarh mayor polls, has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that he has depression and anxiety disorder.
The development comes a day before the apex court will take up the matter to decide the next course of action against him for misleading the Court by stating “patent falsehood”.
The Court had on February 20 reversed the decision taken on January 30 by Masih to declare the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mayor candidate Manoj Sonkar as the winner by declaring 8 votes cast in favour of Kuldeep Kumar – the joint candidate for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress, as invalid.
The bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud directed the 8 votes to be valid and ordered Kuldeep Kumar as the mayor and posted the matter for Friday.
Also Read: Supreme Court overturns mandate theft in ‘patently illegal’ Chandigarh mayor poll
In his affidavit filed on Wednesday, Masih said that on February 19 when he appeared before the Court and made statement “at the spur of the moment”, he was reeling under depression and anxiety syndrome and was taking medication for it.
He visited the psychiatry department of PGIMER Chandigarh in this regard on February 10 and has since made two follow up visits on February 22 and March 7.
The affidavit filed on March 13 said, “A purported video recording of the election process was leaked online on January 31. Thereafter, the respondent (Masih) was subjected to incessant criticism, name calling and ad hominems by members of political parties as well as social media. This put the respondent, including his family members, under immense mental trauma and stress.”
The bench comprising CJI Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will take up the affidavit on Friday per the February 20 direction, following which the Registry of the top court issued notice to Masih under Section 340 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which prescribes the procedure to be undertaken for punishing a person who commits contempt of lawful authority of public servant.
Masih stated in his reply to Section 340 notice that his “privacy and mental health was intruded upon” due to the media coverage and reportage during the period preceding his appearance in Court.
He urged the Court, “The above mentioned factors, particularly the safety and mental health of respondent may kindly be weighed and kept in mind” while dealing with his matter.
The bench in its order of February 20 had said, “The ballots had not been defaced when the Presiding Officer put his mark at the bottom. The ballots left no manner of doubt about the candidate for whom the ballot was cast. But that apart, it is evident that the Presiding Officer is guilty of a serious misdemeanour in doing what he did in his role and capacity as Presiding Officer.”
Masih has to be present when the matter against him is taken up for hearing.
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