Bal, J. - (1.) This application raises an interesting point of considerable importance and the facts out of which it arises may be briefly stated as follows.
(2.) The petitioner is a local authority, being the Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay and respondents 2 to 144 (hereinafter referred to as the respondents) are clerks employed in its different departments. The last general elections to the State Legislative Assembly and the House of the People were held on 25 February, 1962 which happened to be a Sunday. Prior to those elections the Collector of Bombay wrote to the municipal commissioner on 26 December, 1960 requesting him. "to spare the maximum possible number from the staff in various branches of the corporation to work as presiding officers."
(3.) The request was made under S. 159 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. By the same letter the Collector requested the municipal commissioner to supply "an exhaustive list of the maximum number of persons that could be mustered from all the branches of the corporation," showing their grades of pay, etc. On receipt of the letter the municipal commissioner directed the heads of the different departments to furnish directly to the Collector the information asked for by him and the information asked was accordingly furnished. Further information such as residential addresses, designations, etc., of those who could be spared, was thereafter asked for on 20 March, 1961 and was supplied in due course.;