Tanisha Rana
Published on: September 27, 2022 at 21:49 IST
The Supreme Court has appointed a fourth Constitution Bench to hear five matters that are currently pending before the five-judge constitution benches.
Justices S Abdul Nazeer, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian, and BV Nagarathna make up the new bench. Tomorrow, the bench will meet to discuss five cases.
The bench will hear the following cases:
- The first issue before the bench is listed as petitions filed in 2016 contesting the Central Government’s decision to demonetize the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes [Vivek Narayan Sharma vs. Union of India | WP(c) 906/2016 and 57 connected matters];
- The second issue concerns whether limitations can be placed on ministers’ exercise of their constitutional right to free expression [Kaushal Kishor vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh Govt. of U.P. Home Secretary with 1 Associated Matter Case No.: W.P.(CRL) No.113/2016];
- The third issue concerns whether or not Members of Parliament or the Legislative Assembly are immune from prosecution for an offence including the offer or acceptance of a bribe to cast a vote in a legislature [Sita Soren vs. Union of India, Case No.: CRL.A.NO.451/2019];
- The fourth issue concerns the use of Section 319 of the CrPC [Sukhpal Singh Khaira vs. The State of Punjab with 2 associated matters Case No. : CRL.A.NO.885/2019];
- The fifth issue concerns whether is it not permitted to infer a public servant’s guilt under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 based on other evidence presented by the prosecution, even in the absence of complainant/direct or primary evidence of demand for an illegal gratification? [State of the NCT of Delhi vs. Neeraj Dutta].
The new bench will be the Supreme Court’s fourth live Constitution Bench.
The Chief Justice UU Lalit, Justice DY Chandrachud, and Justice SK Kaul, respectively, are in charge of the other benches.
Another Constitutional Bench presided over by Justice Indira Banerjee has been disbanded as a result of her retirement last week.
Therefore, there have been a total of 5 Constitution Benches so far under CJI UU Lalit’s term.