Pegasus, Bilkis Bano, PMLA : CJI Ramana To Hear Crucial Cases A Day Before His Retirement

Outgoing Chief Justice of India NV Ramana is hearing several crucial cases on his second last working day(August 25) as a judge of the Supreme Court. 

On Thursday, CJI Ramana is sitting in six different bench combinations and will hear important cases such as Pegasus, Bilkis Bano remission, review against the PMLA judgment.

At 10.30, CJI will sit in combination with Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli to pronounce judgment in a batch of civil appeals. After the judgment pronouncement, CJI Ramana will sit in combination with Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli to hear the Pegasus case - a batch of PILs seeking probe into the allegations of targeted surveillance of journalists and activists using the Israeli spyware Pegasus(ML Sharma versus Union of India and connected cases). The case is posted tomorrow for pursuing the report submitted by the committee led by former Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran, which was constituted by the Supreme Court in October 2021 to probe into the allegations.

The same bench will also pronounce orders in the case seeking probe into the security lapse during Prime Minister's Punjab visit in January 2022(Lawyers Voice versus Union of India). The Court had earlier appointed an enquiry panel headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra to probe into the matter and submit a report thereafter. 

After the Pegasus case, CJI Ramana will sit in combination with Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar to hear the review petitions against the controversial July 27 judgment which upheld the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) giving vast powers to the Enforcement Directorate(ED) for arrest, raid and attachment and imposing stringent conditions for bail. On August 24, considering a review petition filed by Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in chambers, the bench led by Chief Justice of India had allowed open court hearing in the review.

After the PMLA case, CJI Ramana will sit along with Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath to hear the plea challenging the premature release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The bench will hear the petition filed by CPI (M) MP Subhasini Ali, journalist Revati Laul & Prof Roop Rekha Verma challenging the Gujarat Government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts who were sentenced to life imprisonment for gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. The other two members of the bench, Justice Rastogi and Justice Vikram Nath were part of the bench which ruled in May 2022 that Gujarat has the jurisdiction to decide the remission in the case.

After these matters, CJI Ramana will sit along with Justices Hima Kohli and CT Ravikumar to hear the regular causelist. After that, CJI will sit along with Justice JK Maheshwari to consider two other regular matters.

CJI Ramana will demit office on August 26.