( 1 ) ELECTION is the essence of political democracy. It gives the people right to choose their representatives after a specified interval. Therefore, expeditious holding of elections is absolutely imperative. In order to ensure that the process of election is not impeded by interlocutory judicial interventions, the founding fathers of the constitution incorporated Art. 329 in Part xv of the Constitution and enacted bar to interference by Courts in electoral matters. That article reads as under:"329. Bar to interference by courts in electoral matters. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Constitution (a) the validity of any law relating to the delimitation of constituencies or the allotment of seats to such constituencies, made or purporting to be made under article 327 or Article 328, shall not be called in question in any court; (b) no election to either House of parliament or to the House of the legislature of a State shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such authority and in such manner as may be provided for by or under any law made by the appropriate legislature. "

( 2 ) WHEN part IX and IX-A were inserted in the Constitution by the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 and the constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 and the panchayats and municipalities were declared as institutions of self-government, similar bar was enacted in the form of articles 243-0 and 243-ZG. These two articles also read as under:"243-O. Bar to interference by courts in electoral matters. Notwithstanding anything in this constitution (a) the. validity of any law relating to the delimitation of constituencies or the allotment of seats to such constituencies made or purporting to be made under article 243k, shall not be called. in question in any court; (b) no election to any Panchayat shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such authority and in such manner as is provided for by or under any Law made by the Legislature of a slate. "243 ZG. Bar to interference by courts in electoral matters. Notwithstanding anything in this constitution (a) the validity of any law relating to the delimitation of constituencies or the allotment of seats to such constituencies, made or purporting to be made under article 243zf shall not be called in question in any court; (b) no election to any Municipality shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such authority and in such manner as is provided for by or under any law made by the Legislature of a state. "

( 3 ) THE ambit and scope of the bar contained in Art. 329 was considered by a constitution Bench of Supreme Court in n. P. Ponnuswamy v. Returning Officer, namakkal Constituency and others, AIR 1952 SC 64. In that case, the appellant was one of the persons, who had filed nomination paper for election to Madras legislative Assembly from Namakkal constituency of Salem District. The returning Officer rejected his nomination paper. The appellant moved the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of india for quashing the order of the returning Officer and for issuance of mandamus for inclusion of his name in the list of valid nominations. The High Court dismissed the writ petition on the ground that it did not have the jurisdiction to interfere with the order of the Returning officer. In appeal, the Supreme Court interpreted the word election appearing in part XV of the Constitution and held : "the word election has been used in Part XV of the Constitution in the right sense, that is to say, to connote the entire procedure to be gone through to return the candidate to the legislature. The use of the expression"conduct of elections in Article 324 specifically points to the wide meaning and that meaning can also be read consistently into the other provisions which occur in part XV including Article 329 (b ). The term election may be taken to embrace the whole procedure whereby an elected mem