SC To Reopen Tomorrow With Action Packed Cases Lined Up

The Supreme Court will reopen tomorrow after a 42-day summer break, and the first fortnight is all set to be action-packed.Verdicts on crucial cases like the power struggle between Delhi Chief Minister and Lt Governor, the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, and the review petition filed by death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case are expected soon.Though it was widely expected that the judgment in the Kejriwal Government v. LG case would be delivered on the reopening day as the verdict was reserved almost seven months back on December 6, 2017, it is not listed in tomorrow’s cause list.Among the important matters, the court is only going to pronounce the judgment in the petition filed by Common Cause challenging the appointment K.V. Chaudhary as Chief Vigilance Commissioner and T.M. Bhasin as Vigilance Commissioner. Plea challenging restrictions on women’s entry into Sabarimala shrine and PILs seeking to make adultery law gender neutral too is set to come up before the constitution bench.NEW ROSTER TO COME INTO EFFECTOn June 24, ironically two days after the retirement of Justice J. Chelameswar who had raised serious questions regarding allocation of cases by CJI Dipak Misra, SC notified a new roster for the allocation of cases to judges, which will come into effect from tomorrow.Like the previous roster notified on February 1, the new roster says that the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will hear all public interest litigation petitions, besides pleas on social justice, elections, habeas corpus and contempt of court.Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the senior-most judge after the Chief Justice, will deal with labour laws, indirect taxes, personal law and company law cases.The roster was put in the public domain for the first time in February, after Justices Chelameswar, Gogoi, M.B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph held an unprecedented press meet in January questioning the allocation of sensitive PIL petitions and crucial cases to judges junior to them. SC DYNAMICS TO CHANGEThe Supreme Court will reopen on Monday without Justice Chelameswar, who has long been considered by many as its strongest and most honest voices. With his retirement on 22 June, the dynamics of the Supreme Court collegium are also set to change, as Justice A.K. Sikri would become a part of the collegium, which also includes CJI Misra, and Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph. This is especially important to note in view of the fact that the recommendation for elevation of Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, Justice K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court is still pending with the collegium.The Centre had rejected Justice Joseph’s elevation in April this year, noting that it would “not be fair and justified to other more senior, suitable and deserving Chief Justices and senior Puisne Judges of various High Courts.” Several jurists, former Judges and Advocates had then stepped forth, calling out the Centre for the move, and demanding reiteration of the recommendation by the Collegium.However, the collegium has deferred the decision to re-recommend him thrice since April. The first deferment occurred on 2 May after which on 11 May, the collegium “on principle” unanimously agreed to re-recommend him, but opined that the reiteration should be accompanied by a few other names for appointment as Apex Court Judges. However, it deferred the decision for a third time on 16 May.With Justice Chelameswar’s retirement, it is unclear whether the collegium can re-iterate the recommendation even if Justice Sikri agrees, or whether it would have to send the recommendation as a fresh one.CASES TO LOOK FORWARD TO:JUDGMENT IN KEJRIWAL GOVT V. LG MATTER: The five-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan had, on December 6, 2017, reserved its judgment in the case challenging the Delhi High Court judgment declaring the LG as the sole administrator of Delhi. The case essentially concerns the Centre-Delhi power tussle over who between them wields the power of administration and governance over the National Capital.Over a month after it commenced hearing the batch of appeals filed by the Delhi government, the Bench had wrapped up the hearing after hearing the rejoinder arguments of Senior Advocates Gopal Subramanium and Rajeev Dhawan for the Delhi government. The Delhi government was represented by a galaxy of senior counsel, including P. Chidambaram and Indira Jaising. The Centre was represented by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, who had argued that the Delhi government cannot stake any claim to have executive power over the sensitive National Capital.AADHAAR VALIDITY VERDICT: The Court had, on May 10, reserved its verdict on the batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar after a marathon 38-day hearing that spanned four months. The five-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M...

SC To Reopen Tomorrow With Action Packed Cases Lined Up

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