NEW DELHI: With the vacancy of 10 judges, the major challenge before the Supreme Court now is to have in place a mechanism so that it can dispose of 50 Constitutional cases pending before it.
Restricted working due to Covid- 19 is another reason why the constitution benches are not functioning at the top court.
A Constitution bench, which looks into specific cases that require interpretation of the Constitution, must consist a minimum of five judges.
These benches are set up on an ad hoc basis as and when the need arises. The idea behind a Constitution bench is clear — it is constituted in rare cases to decide important questions of fact or legal and/or Constitutional interpretation.
The court sits in benches of two, or occasionally three judges, to hear the large number of cases before it and the functioning of the rest of the court is hampered when a larger bench has to be assembled.
At present, 50 Constitution bench cases are pending in Supreme Court, many of them high on significance. The year began with 50 such cases and saw the tally drop to 47 in February. Following this, the court saw a stagnation, with numbers increasing again.
Interestingly, Justice DY Chandrchud tops the list of being the part of maximum Constitutional benches, followed by Justice AM Khanwilkar.
Then comes Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and UU Lalit. Pleas related to abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir has still not seen the constitution of a bench.
According to experts, a key reason behind this delay is PILs raising important questions of law, scams and human rights violations which have been consuming significant judicial time.
These make it difficult for successive CJIs to disengage judges from such issues and include them in Constitution benches, a process that would block five judges for a long period.
IMPORTANT CASES PENDING
1 Abrogation of Article 370
2 Petitions challenging CAA
3 Sabarimala case