New Delhi, Aug 8 : With only 10 days remaining in the office of Chief Justice N.V.Ramana’s decision is expected on five crucial issues -the Maharashtra political situation and report of Pegasus panel, PM’s security breach in Punjab and a bid by the Maharashtra Wakf Board to replace Attorney General K.K.Venugopal as the attorney in the matter, and establishing the establishment of an inquiry bench to hear petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment banning the wearing of hijab in pre-university institutions in the state — and more including petitions challenging Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the an inventory of petitions disputing the repeal of Article 370, which granted a special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Justice Ramana has been vocal about the non-filling of the judicial vacancies and improving the infrastructure of the judiciary as the primary reason for the delay of the cases in the country.
He has also stressed the accessibility to justice for those from the less fortunate sections of society.
Ramana has not minced words in condemning the government when participating in public forums and also attempted to resolve issues of constitutional importance – on May 11th, a bench ruled by him halted the penal provision of the colonial era of sedition, stating that the court is aware of the integrity of the state on one hand and the rights to civil rights of citizens on the other.
The Chief Justice will retire on August 26.
The Chief Justice hurled a volley of questions to the senior attorney Harish Salve, who is representing Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, as he listened to petitions submitted by the Shiv Sena and its rebel MLAs on constitutional questions of split defection, merger and disqualification.
On the 4th of August, a three-judge court comprised of him announced that the court would decide on the 8th of August whether to refer certain issues arising in the Maharashtra political crisis to a constitution bench.
The apex court has also requested the Election Commission of India not to rule on the petition filed by the Shinde camp to recognize them as the’real Shiv Sena and the allocation of the party’s symbol.
The case is likely to be brought to a hearing in the near future.
The court-appointed Pegasus panel has filed their report in the suspected abuse of the Pegasus spyware to monitor activists, politicians, and journalists.
The panel is led by the former Supreme Court judge R.V.Raveendran.The report’s contents of the report are confidential.
The final court decision regarding the report of the panel is still awaited.
On August 3rd on the 3rd of August, the Supreme Court had agreed to create an inquiry bench to look into a number of appeals against the Karnataka High Court judgment, which declared the right of institutions of higher education to prohibit the wearing of hijab in the pre-university colleges in the state.
When the matter was brought up to be listed, a counsel requested the court to set a time in this matter since petitions to challenge the high court ruling had been submitted in March.
In January of this year the Supreme Court announced that an inquiry committee led by former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra will be investigating the security breach in Punjab.
A bench, headed by justice Ramana and describing the guidelines of the inquiry committee, stated “What are the causes of the security breach in the 5th January 2022? Who is accountable for such breach and in what way? What are the corrective steps or safeguards that are necessary to ensure the safety of the Prime Minister and other protected persons?”
The top court decision was made on a petition from the non-governmental organization, Lawyer’s Voice, which was represented by senior advocate Maninder Singh.The petitioner had stressed the importance of protecting the Prime Minister of the country and asked the court to establish an independent committee to investigate the issue.
The case has not come up for hearing since the petition was filed.
On August 2nd, a bench led by Ramana was dissatisfied with the Maharashtra Wakf Board for attempting to replace Attorney General (AG) K.K.Venugopal as an attorney in the case in the middle of hearings on an important issue – whether all the properties donated by Muslims for charitable purposes would fall under Wakf.
The AG had also addressed the Supreme Court to take strong opposition to the decision that was taken by the Wakf Board.
“All this interfering with the counsel appointed representing the parties and being removed at the very last moment is an extremely unjustified, unjustified and unjustified attempt to interfere in the proper execution of justice by taking counsel for the parties.
This is clearly an act of infraction of the court,” the AG said in his letter to the registrar (judicial).The highest court could consider this issue soon.
In April of this year the Supreme Court said a reconstituted five-judge constitution court would deal with the bulk of petitions contesting the abrogation of Article 370, since one of the judges on the bench, Justice R.Subhash Reddy has since retired.
A Chief Justice-appointed bench.Ramana stated that the reconstituted bench could hear the case following the summer break.The issue is not listed at this point.
In December of 2019 the supreme court issued a notice of petitions that challenged the legitimacy of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.In December of 2019 the highest court denied temporary relief in the case.The case has been in the limbo for the past two years.
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