The Supreme Court seven-judge Constitution benches will hear a series of important cases from January 9, 2024.
The cases include the passage of laws as Money Bills, validity of sub-classification with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the interplay between breach of privilege and fundamental rights, whether state can make law on imposing surcharge on sales tax, whether central universities like Aligarh Muslim University can have minority status and whether the Speaker can adjudicate on disqualification petitions when they face such a petition.
Among the aforementioned six cases, four would be heard by a seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud in January 2024. A circular issued by the Supreme Court last week stated that six seven-judge bench matters and four nine-judge bench matters will be listed before the appropriate benches in the next three months. While the first batch of seven-judge bench matters will be taken up from January 9, the four nine-judge bench cases have been listed on February 6, February 20 and the third week of March.
On January 9, the seven-judge bench will hear two cases pertaining to the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh Muslim University v Naresh Agarwal and the state’s power to make law imposing surcharge on sales tax in Arjun Flour Mills v State of Orissa. The aforesaid matters will be heard by the bench presided over by the Chief Justice of India.
On January 17 and January 30, the seven-judge bench will hear cases related to validity of sub-classification with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the passage of laws as Money bills respectively. Both these matters will also be decided by a bench presided over by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
Later, in the first week of March, the apex court’s seven-judge bench will hear the case relating to interplay between breach of privilege and fundamental rights. In the second week of March, the Supreme Court seven-judge bench has listed the case concerning whether the Speaker can adjudicate on disqualification petitions when they face such a petition. These cases will not be heard by a bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud.