Patiala, Oct. 8 -- The Supreme Court has ordered fresh elections in 50 municipal wards in Patiala and Moga districts, holding that the electoral process in these wards was vitiated by widespread obstruction during the nomination process, including preventing opposition candidates from contesting. The order, passed on September 28 and uploaded on Wednesday, covers 28 wards of the Patiala municipal corporation, all 15 wards of the Baghapurana municipal council and seven wards of the Dharamkot municipal council. The re-election process must be completed within six weeks, with the entire exercise placed under an unprecedented judicial monitoring mechanism, the SC said. The Supreme Court accepted the report of a fact-finding commission headed by former Punjab and Haryana high court judge justice Nirmaljit Kaur, which was appointed by the court in March 2025 to examine allegations arising from the December 2024 municipal elections. The commission examined 46 claim petitions filed by 85 claimants and considered affidavits, official replies, CCTV and video footage, photographs, voter records and statements of election, police and civil officials, observers and claimants. The petitioners, belonging to different national and state political parties, alleged they were prevented from filing nominations through assault, intimidation and the snatching or tearing of nomination papers. They had also alleged that the nomination process was not videographed despite the high court's directions. In Patiala, the commission found elections in 13 wards - 1, 12, 32, 33, 36, 41, 43, 44, 45, 48, 50, 51 and 52 - were vitiated after finding that opposition candidates had been prevented from filing nominations. Another 14 wards - 4, 6, 14, 16, 22, 26, 28, 37, 38, 40, 46, 53, 55 and 57 - were found vitiated because particular opposition candidates were forcibly excluded from contesting, although the commission could not determine whether their participation would have altered the results. Polls to Ward 34 were also vitiated after candidate Gaurav Kumar was prevented from filing his nomination. The commission additionally found serious evidence of bogus or multiple voting and intimidation in wards 15 and 58, sufficient to question the fairness of those elections, though it did not conclude that the irregularities necessarily changed the results. Allegations relating to wards 7, 18 and 19 were not proved for want of evidence. The findings were particularly sweeping in Baghapurana, where the commission held the elections in all 15 wards vitiated, finding that opposition candidates were systematically prevented from filing nominations. In Dharamkot, elections in wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 13 were found vitiated because of forcible prevention of nominations, coercive withdrawal or wrongful rejection. The commission identified 50 ward elections as vitiated - 28 in Patiala district and 22 in Moga district. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Punjab, told the Supreme Court that the state had no objection to accepting the commission's recommendations. The court then ordered fresh elections in all 50 wards....