The Supreme Court has directed the Chandigarh administration to recount votes from last month's mayoral election, and include eight - all in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party - declared "invalid" by Returning Officer Anil Masih.
The decision came on a petition against a High Court order allowing Hindutva organisations to celebrate the festival on the ground where Muslims offer prayers.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday took an unfavourable view of the arguments by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's camp that the petitions by Uddhav Thackeray camp are not maintainable.
The judgment was pronounced by a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar on a batch of 241 petitions challenging the validity of the law.