JUDGMENT

CHANDRACHUD, CJI. (for himself and on behalf of V. D. TULZAPURKAR, R. S. PATHAK AND D. P. MADON, JJ.) :- We had passed an interim order on April 18, suspending the operation of the order passed by the High Court of Punjab & Haryana, on April 17, 1984. The High Court, by its aforesaid order, had stayed the issuance and publication of the notification by the Election Commission of India under Ss. 30, 56 and 150 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. We had directed that the special leave petition should be listed before us the next day for considering whether the interim order should be confirmed.

2. On February 28, 1984, this Court gave a judgment in Civil Appeal No. 5501 of 1983, setting aside the election of the returned candidate from the 59-Taoru Assembly Constituency in Haryana. As a result of that judgment, a vacancy arose in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Haryana from that Constituency. On April 6, 1984, the Election Commission of India sent a message to the Chief Secretary, Haryana, who is the Chief Electoral Officer for the State of Haryana, informing him that the Commission had fixed a certain programme for holding the by-election to the Taoru Constituency. According to that programme, the notification under S. 150 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, was to be issued on April 18, 1984, the last date for filing nominations is April 25, 1984, while the date of poll is May 20, 1984. The Election Commission fixed an identical programme for filling 23 other vacancies in the legislative assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal.

3. On April 7, 1984, the Election Commission received a telex message from. the Chief Secretary, Government of Haryana, conveying the request of the Haryana Government that the proposed by-election should be held along with the general elections to the Lok Sabha, which are due later this year. On April 11, 1984, the Chief Secretary wrote a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner renewing the aforesaid request for two reasons :

(1) The next general election to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha is due in May, 1987 and since the Taoru vacancy had occurred recently on February 28, 1984, there was no immediate necessity to fill it; and

(2) deferring the by-election would save time, labour and expense.

On April 12, 1984, the Election Commission informed the Chief Electoral Officers by a telex message that it had decided to adhere to the programme of by-elections to 24 vacancies in their respective jurisdictions. The telex message mentioned specifically that the Commission had taken into consideration the replies received by it from various State Govts. and their Chief Electoral Officers on the question of holding the elections as proposed. On the same date i.e. April 12, 1984, copies of notifications to be published on April 18, 1984 in the Haryana Gazette were sent to the Chief Electoral Officer of Haryana. By a separate communication of the same date, the Commission informed all the political parties about the programme fixed by it for holding the by-elections. A press note was also issued to the same effect on the same date.

4. The Chief Secretary, Haryana, met the Chief Election Commissioner on April 14 and explained to him personally why it, was neither advisable nor possible to hold the by-election to the Taoru seat as proposed by the latter. On April 16, the Chief Secretary wrote a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner reiterating the view of his Government. He added in that letter that it would not be possible to hold the election during the proposed period because, the neighbouring State of Punjab was going through a serious problem of law and order, that there was a dispute regarding territorial adjustment and division of waters between the State of Haryana and the Akali Party in Punjab, that the said dispute was used by the Akali Party for stepping up terrorist activities, that the, terrorists had attacked persons occupying high public offices, that t