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G. The term of the 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly ends in May 2021. The general elections will take place in April. Model Code of Conduct is likely to come into force by March 10, 2021. With the notification of the local body elections, a code of conduct will be in force for the same which will be for a span of at least a month and will be in force till declaration of results. Therefore, conduct of two general elections is slated to happen one after another within 4 months. The combined period of almost two months of model of conduct and the pressure and work associated with two consecutive elections will paralyze the functioning of the Government offices and police putting general administration and COVID control in disarray. This is in addition to the huge expenditure required for conduct of the two elections on separate dates which will run into thousands of crores of public money. The human resource and finances that are urgently required in the health sector will be diverted to conduct elections if elections are conducted now when the COVID figures have hit a peak. Therefore, the conduct of local body elections will break the back of the State exchequer when the economy is already crumbling and divert precious funds which can be used to save lives during the COVID pandemic. The duty of the State to safeguard the fundamental rights of its citizens is the basic structure of the Constitution and trumps any other Constitutional or statutory obligation. Hence, the State Election Commission ought to be directed to consider the possibility of conducting the assembly and local body elections/ together.

44. Let us consider how the High Court of Patna has addressed the above contentions in the aforesaid judgment.

"In the case of Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narayan [(1975) Supp SCC 1], the Constitution Bench of Hon'ble the Apex Court held that free and fair elections form is an essential feature of any democracy and therefore forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution.

Further voters have a fundamental right to know and have information on the antecedents of the candidates, as pointed, the Hon'ble the Apex Court in the case of Union of India v. Association for Democratic Reforms and Anr. [(2002) 5 SCC 294] has held so as under:

(Emphasis supplied) In 2002 Special Ref. by President (Gujarat Assembly) (supra), a Constitution Bench of the Hon'ble Court observed that:

"77. We find that the Representation of the People Act, 1951 also has not provided any period of limitation for holding election for constituting fresh Assembly election in the event of premature dissolution of the former Assembly. In this context, concerns were expressed by learned counsel for one of the national political parties and one of the States that in the absence of any period provided either in the Constitution or in the Representation of the People Act, the Election Commission may not hold election at all and in that event it would be the end of democracy. It is no doubt true that democracy is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution and periodical, free and fair election is the substratum of democracy. If there is no free and fair periodic election, it is the end of democracy and the same was recognized in M.S. Gill v. Chief Election Commr., thus: (SCC p. 419, para 12) "12. A free and fair election based on universal adult franchise is the basic, the regulatory procedures vis-à-vis the repositories of functions and the distribution of legislative, executive and judicative roles in the total scheme, directed towards the holding of free elections, are the specifics. . The super authority is the Election Commission, the kingpin is the Returning Officer, the minions are the presiding officers in the polling stations and the electoral engineering is in conformity with the elaborate legislative provisions."