ORDER :

This judgment being rendered in a PIL needs to be preluded by what the former Chief Editor of the New York Times (1 December,1989) Mr. A M Rosenthal ecstatically had commented as under, about our Parliamentary Elections of November, 1989:

“When India voted, a whole world voted.

A whole world - hundreds of millions of people, speaking in a great orchestra of different languages, praying to different gods, living in a continental hugeness that not long ago was divided into hundreds of principalities, people driven to centuries of war against each other by rulers seeking conquest, foreigners seeking booty, religious zealots seeking blood, educated people by the millions, illiterate peasants by the scores of millions, from mountains through great stretches of plains to southern seas.

Once again this whole world voted as one nation in a countrywide election, nine times now.”

It is said that Elections are the festivals of Democracy. In India, these festivals are celebrated with all pomp & glory signifying something, albeit unseemingly.

2. Petitioner, a practicing lawyer has presented this Social Action Litigation with the following prayers:

“(i) Issue a Writ of Mandamus calling for the