A new five-Judge Constitution Bench has been constituted in the Supreme Court, which will hear cases pending before the Apex Court for a long time.
This will be the fourth Constitution bench of the Supreme Court. The other three Benches are led by Chief Justice (CJI) U.U. Lalit, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice S.K. Kaul.
There was another Constitution Bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee, which was dissolved following her retirement last week. This takes the number of Constitution Benches formed so far during the term of CJI Lalit to five.
The new bench will comprise Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice A.S. Bopanna, Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice B.V. Nagarathna.
During its first sitting on Wednesday, the fourth Constitution Bench will hear five matters, which are as under:
1. Petitions challenging the decision of the Union of India to demonetise the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000. (Vivek Narayan Sharma vs Union of India and 57 connected cases)
2. Can restrictions be imposed on the fundamental right to freedom of speech exercised by Ministers? (Kaushal Kishor vs The State of Uttar Pradesh Govt. of UP Home Secretary with 1 connected matter)
3. Does Article 105/194 (2) of the Constitution confer any immunity on the Members of Parliament/Legislative Assembly from being prosecuted for an offence involving offer or acceptance of bribe to cast vote in a legislature? (Sita Soren vs Union Of India)
4. Powers under Section 319 of the CrPC (Sukhpal Singh Khaira vs The State Of Punjab with 2 connected matters)
5. Questions related to the Prevention of Corruption Act (Neeraj Dutta vs State)