Dr. B.S. Chauhan, J. - (1.) Heard learnad couusel for the petitioners and Sri Aditya Narain, learned counsel for the respondent No. 1 and learned Standing Counsel for the respondents No. 2 and 3,
(2.) In this case the petitioners were duly elected as members of Kshetriya Samiti and were granted certificate to the effect. Their grievance is that the election for Kshetriya Pramukh is scheduled lo be held on 12th June. 1995. But respondents No. 1 and 2, for the best reasons known to them, have not administered the petitioners, the oath of office and the petitioners are seeking interim mandamus under Article 226 or the Constitution of India, to the effect that the petitioners should be a.lowed to contest the elections without taking oath or the administration may be directed to administer the oath of office to the petitioners before the due date i. e. 5th June, 1 995. The Court is dismayed to note the conduct of the respondents No. 1 and 2. Every authority must remember that every power is coupled with a duty to act fairly and reasonably, without any bias and arbitrariness. In the case of Commissioner of Police v. Goverdhan Das, AIR 1952 SC 16, the Supreme Court has observed as under : "Public authorities cannot play fast and loose with the powers vested in them, and persons to whose detriment orders are made are entitled to know with exactness and precision what they are expected to do or forbear from doing and exactly what authority is making the order......................." In the aforesaid case the Supreme Court has made reference to the observations made in the case of Julius v. Lord Bishop of Oxford, (1880) 5 AC 214 as under: "There may be something in the nature of the thing empowered to be done, something in the object for which it is to be done, something in the title of the person or persons for whose benefit the power is to be exercised, which may couple the power with a duty, and make it the duty of the person in whom the power is reposed, to exercise that power when called upon to do so."
(3.) The Supreme Court further has made the following observation : "An enabling power of this kind conferred for public reasons and for the public benefit is, in our opinion, coupled with authority to exercise It when the circumstances so demand, it is a duty which cannot be shirked or shelvad nor it be evaded, performance of it can be compelled.";