By the Court.—The law of conduct of elections of the Parliament, Assemblies and other public bodies, as declared and interpreted, generally mandates that once the election process has commenced, it should not be interfered with as it would tantamount to impeding a democratic march constitutionally envisaged for establishing governance. The embargo was placed on judicial interference by several pronouncements of the Apex Court, and without burdening this judgement with a plethora of rulings, it would suffice to mention that celebrated decision in the case of Mohinder Singh Gill v. Chief Election Commissioner, (1978) 1 SCC 405.

2. This petition unfolds a case where the State Government of U.P. has under its orders, that has been executed by the State Election Commission without visible resistance, unilaterally postponed the notified elections of Pramukhs of Kshettra Panchayat until further orders resulting in a state of indefiniteness. The grounds, as per the original records disclosed by the State Government, are absolutely vague and opaque with no material to demonstrate any real existing difficulty. There is no element of vis major or force majeure, much less any legal or real reason actually in existence on record to justify the impugned action except for the wish expressed by a cabinet minister about difficulties to be faced that have no foundation. This wish, even though confined for the district of Faizabad, has been converted into a reason for postponing the elections in two other districts of Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur as well. The question is can the State Government in such circumstances, without the participation of the State Election Commission, unilaterally subvert the scheduled elections bypassing the constitutional and statutory provisions.

3. We have heard Dr. L.P. Misra, learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel Sri H.P. Srivastava for the State respondent Nos. 1 and 4 and Sri J.N. Mathur, learned Senior Counsel for the State Election Commission respondent Nos. 2 and 3 alongwith Ms. Aprajita Bansal.

4. This writ petition raises a challenge to the notification issued by the Election Commission dated 21.1.2016, Annexure-1 to the writ petition, whereby the Election Commission has notified that the elections of Pramukhs of Kshettra Panchayats in the districts of Faizabad, Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar shall remain stayed until further orders.

5. An amendment application has been filed that has been separately allowed by us today whereby the order of the State Government dated 20.1.2016 has also been formally challenged and a prayer has been made for quashing the same.

6. This writ petition came up on 29.1.2016 before a Division Bench when the following order was passed:

“Put up on Monday i.e.1 February 2016 as fresh.

Learned Standing Counsel as well as learned counsel appearing for the State Election Commission shall obtain specific instructions on the compelling circumstances which have led to the deferment of election until further orders. It is made clear that the Court shall proceed to hear the matter on the basis of instructions made so available by the learned counsel for the respondents.”

Today before lunch, we had passed the following order:

“Heard Dr. L.P. Misra, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Jaideep Narain Mathur, learned Senior Counsel for the State Commission alongwith Ms. Aparajita Bansal and the learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State.

This writ petition has been filed questioning the legality and validity of the notification issued by the State Election Commission dated 21.1.2016 on the ground that there was no decipherable reason or rationale appearing for adjournment or postponement of the election process which has been duly notified for the post of Pramukh, Kshettra Panchayat scheduled to be held on 7.2.2016.

The matter had been taken up taken up on 29.1.2016 by a Division Bench where directions were issued that the matter sha