Ayodhya, Sabarimala, Rafale & More : CJI Gogoi To Deliver Important Judgments In 8 Working Days Left Before Retirement

The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has to deliver judgments in six important cases in the eight working days left before his retirement on November 17.

The Supreme Court is currently on Diwali vacation and will resume working from November 4.

The most keenly awaited one is the judgment in the Ayodhya-Babri Masjid title dispute case. The five judges bench presided by CJI Gogoi had reserved judgment on October 16, after 40 days of hearing in the case regarding the ownership of 2.77 acres of disputed land in Ayodhya district in UP. The Hindu parties have contended that the entire 2.77 acres of land has juristic personality as the janmasthan of Lord Ram. The Muslim side has countered this by saying that the mere belief that the site was the birth place of Lord Ram will not confer it juristic personality.

The parties have referred to the reports of historians, travelers and gazetters and land documents prepared during British rule to base their respective claims. References were also made to the report of the Archaeological Survey of India on the point whether the mosque was built over an existing temple.

Rafale review verdict

On May 10, the last day before summer vacations, the bench comprising CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph had reserved orders on the review petitions filed against the December 14 verdict which had declined to order probe into the corruption allegations in the Rafale deal.

The review petitions filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan and former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie placed reliance on certain documents leaked by media in order to argue that the Government had suppressed material information from the Court regarding the deal to procure 36 fighter jets from French company Dassault. The Court also heard an application for initiating perjury proceedings against officials who had allegedly misled the Court.

On April 10, the bench of CJI Gogoi, Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph had rejected Centre's preliminary objections against examining the documents leaked by newspapers such as 'The Hindu'. The Attorney General K K Venugopal had argue that the documents were obtained without authorization and hence violated Official Secrets Act. But the bench rejected the preliminary objection, on the reasoning that illegality in obtaining evidence did not affect its admissibility in court proceedings, if they are otherwise relevant.

Contempt plea against Rahul Gandhi for attributing "Chowkidar chor hain" remark to SC

The Rafale bench headed by CJI Gogoi on May 10 reserved orders in a contempt petition filed BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attributing 'chwokidar chor hain' remarks to Supreme Court in connection with its April 10 verdict. The Congress chief had expressed apology for attributing the comment, and said that the remark was made in the heat of political campaigning.

Sabarimala review verdict

The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had reserved orders on review petitions in Sabarimala case after giving a full day hearing to the petitioners on February 6.

The Constitution Bench of CJI Gogoi, and Justices Khanwilkar, Nariman, Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra heard the arguments in a bunch of petition filed by the Travancore Devaswom Board, Pandalam Royal Family, and groups of devotees against the September 28, 2018 judgment, which declared right of women of all age groups to enter the temple.

They essentially argued that the practice at temple was based on the celibate character of the deity.

The petitioners also submitted that constitutional morality was a subjective test, which should not be applied in matters of faith. Religious beliefs cannot be tested on basis of rationality. The right to worship has to be exercised in consonance with the nature of deity and essential practice of the temple.They also submitted that the judgment erroneously imported the concept of "untouchability" under Article 17 to the situation of Sabarimala temple, without understanding its historical context.

Application of RTI to CJI's office

The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on April 4 had reserved orders on the issue whether the office of the CJI will come under the Right to Information Act.

A five-judge Constitution bench presided by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was hearing a plea filed by the Supreme Court Secretary General against the January 2010 judgment of the Delhi High Court that declared the CJI's office a "public authority" within the meaning of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005.

Few weeks before the SC notified the Constitution Bench for hearing the appeal, Live Law had highlighted that the appeal was pending in the apex court for past nine years.

Validity of Finance Act 2017 affecting powers and structures of tribunals

On April 10, the Supreme Court reserved judgment in the petition filed by Revenue Bar Association challenging the provisions of Finance Act 2017 which affected the powers and structures of various judicial tribunals such as National Green Tribunal, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. 

Finance Act, which is passed as a money bill, cannot change the composition of tribunals, argued the petitioner. 

Conspiracy plot against CJI in sexual harassment case

The outcome of the probe led by former SC judge Justice A K Patnaik into the conspiracy plot behind the sexual harassment allegations against the CJI will be an important event to look forward to. A special bench of Justice Arun Mishra, R F Nariman and Deepak Gupta had appointed Justice Patnaik to conduct the probe on the basis of claim made by Advocate Utsav Bains that he was approached by fixers, corporate lobbyists and disgruntled employees to frame allegations against the CJI. 

Justice Patnaik has reportedly completed the probe and submitted report to the SC.