Supreme Court to reopen on 1st July after its 49 days Summer Vacation

The Supreme Court of India will resume its working after 49 days long Summer vacation from 01st July 2019, i.e. first monday of July.

Though the vacation benches sat regularly during the summer break, but the most awaited moment after the reopening of the Apex Court will be the judgment on the 2 cases specifically relating to the RAFALE deal; Firstly, the review petition as preferred by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, Prashant Bhushan against the Court's December 2018 judgment, by which it had dismissed petitions calling for an investigation into the Rafale deal and Secondly, the contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ remark to the Supreme Court. Importantly to quote, both the cases pertains to the Bench headed 7 presided over by the hon’ble Chief Justice of India.[1]

IMAGE 1: Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.[2]

Moreover, another awaited cases are the review of the Sabarimala Judgment, Ram-Mandir & Babri Masjid case and the Madras Bar Association case which pertains to a challenge to Sections 156 to 189 of Finance Act, 2017 which amend provisions relating to structuring and re-organisation of tribunals. Various issues were heard in this case including bringing all tribunals under the Ministry of Law and Justice, uniformity of tribunals, the passage of Finance Act as Money Bill etc.[3]

Further, this session will also witness the working of Full Sanctioned strength of Supreme Court of India, as all 31 judges (Sanctioned strength of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India prescribed by parliament) will be seen working till the retirement of Justice Shri A.M. Sapre. This will be witnessed after a very long period of time seeing the full strength of the SC working in full force.

• [1] Murali Krishnan, Supreme Court to reopen tomorrow after 49-day summer vacation - What is in store?, BAR & BENCH (July 01, 2019, 08:19 AM), https://barandbench.com/supreme-court-to-reopen-tomorrow-after-49-day-summer-vacation-what-is-in-store/.
• [2] Alex Andrews George, The Union Judiciary ie. The Supreme Court (Articles 124-147), CLEAR IAS (July 01, 2019, 08:27 AM), https://www.clearias.com/union-judiciary-supreme-court/.
• [3] Ibid.