New Delhi : Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar on Wednesday constituted a 5-judge Constitution Bench presided by himself to hear petitions on the controversial triple talak issue from Thursday on the first day of the summer vacation.
The Bench consists of Justices Kurian Joseph, Rohinton Nariman, Uday Umesh Lalit and S Abdul Nazeer. A bunch of seven petitions have been tagged together for the hearing.
The CJI wanted to constitute three Constitution Benches during the vacation, but he has quietly dropped two others, one relating to the citizenship case of Assam since one of the judges on the proposed Bench is retiring by this month end and the case can not be decided before that while the lawyers refused to appear in the other case on the citizen”s privacy in the WhatsApp case.
Another case on disqualifying MP or MLA from contesting on filing of chargesheet that has to go before yet another Constitution Bench is listed for hearing on Thursday before the second vacation Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha.
The petitioners in the case include retired Chief Justice of India J M Lyngdoh. A 3-judge Bench presided over by Justice Rajan Gogoi had already passed an order on March 8 last year that the CJI may send the case to the 5-judge Constitution Bench, in view of Article 145(3) of the Constitution requiring a Bench of a minimum of five judges to consider the issue.
