Judgment

RANGANATH MISRA, J.:- At the conclusion of the hearing, in view of the urgency of the matter as also the importance of the issues involved, we made an order on September, 28,1984 (reported in AIR 1984 SC 1911), setting out briefly our conclusions and had indicated that detailed reasons would be given in the judgment to be delivered later.

2. On the 12th January, 1983, election to all the 126 seats of the Assam Legislative Assembly was notified to be held in February, 1983. Very disturbed conditions had been prevailing in Assam for a few years prior to this period and one of the issues leading to the agitation was the electoral rolls of 1979 prepared under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (1950 Act for short). When general election was notified, a set of writ petitions were filed in the Gauhati High Court being Civil Rules 87 and 228-246 of 1983. The first application asked for a mandamus to the Election Commission and the State Government then under Presidents rule not to hold elections on the basis of the defective electoral rolls and to defer holding of elections on account of the prevailing disturbed situation in the State. In the second group of writ petitions