New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday constituted another five-judge constitution bench which will hear five crucial cases, including the challenge to the Central government's 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.
At present, three five-judge Constitution benches headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justices DY Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul are hearing various contentious issues, which were pending for years.
The fourth Constitution bench will be headed by Justice S Abdul Nazeer and would comprise Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian, and BV Nagarathna which will hear five cases starting from Wednesday.
It will start hearing a batch of 58 petitions challenging the Centre's November 8, 2016 decision to demonetise the currency notes.
On December 16, 2016, a bench headed by then Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice (Retd) AM Khanwilkar, and Justice DY Chandrachud referred the question of the validity of the decision and other questions to a larger bench of five judges for authoritative pronouncement.
It had framed various questions in the reference order to be adjudicated by the five-judge bench which includes whether the notification dated November 8, 2016, is ultra vires provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and does the notification contravene the provisions of Article 300 (A) of the Constitution.