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37. Admittedly, the term of the Mandal Parishads and Zilla Parishads in the State of Andhra Pradesh would expire by 17-3-2000 and 19-3-2000 respectively. As required under Article 243-E of the Constitution of India, elections to these bodies should have been held prior to 17-3-2000 and 19-3-2000. However, as a matter of fact, no elections are held so far to these bodies on the ground of some supervening difficulties which are enlisted in the impugned Ordinance No.3 of 2000.

38. One of the basic structures of the Constitution of India is Democracy. Democracy means self-governance. That is to say, peoples participation in the governance of the country. The foundation of democracy rests on the pillars of self-governance. In order to usher in the dream of "Gram Swaraj" which is the vision of the Constitution, self-governance is better achieved by clothing the local bodies with sufficient powers. In tune with this avowed object, the Parliament has inserted the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of rejuvenate and revitalise the Panchayat Raj bodies. For the better functioning of these institutions, holding periodical and regular elections are inevitable. Towards this end, the Parliament brought in the 73rd Constitutional amendment and through Article 243-E of the Constitution, fixed the term of the Panchayats for five years and no longer.

39. Democracy being one of the basic structures of the Constitution of India which provides self-governance, any effort to tinker with the basic structure of the Constitution shall be declared as illegal. This view is very much clear by a pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, . In the said decision, the Supreme Court was considering the constitutional validity of 24th, 25th and 29th Amendments to the Constitution. By a majority of 7 against 6 Judges, the Supreme Court declared that the basic structure or frame work of the Constitution cannot be tinkered with and if any attempt is made by any process, such an attempt shall be declared as unconstitutional. It may look as if no effort is made to tinker with the basic structure of the Constitution. But, however, holding of periodical and regular elections to the democratic bodies within the time frame is one of the facets of democractic system. If any attempt is made to make these bodies defunct by not holding electiosn within the time frame, such an attempt shall be declared unconstitutional.