Spl bench on NRC case dissolved

NEW DELHI: The special bench in the Supreme Court, which heard the Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) case, has dissolved with the superannuation of former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

The case was being heard by the bench comprising Justice Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman. A regular bench, headed by current Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, was scheduled to take up the case on Tuesday. It was, however, not taken up.

The special bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman had passed some crucial orders in the case leading to the publication of final NRC.

The exercise, undertaken by court-appointed coordinator Prateek Hajela, took over five years. In the NRC final list published on August 31, over 1.9 million people were left out of the citizenship register.

Justice Gogoi, who superannuated on November 17 this year, heard the Assam NRC case continuously since 2013. During these six years, Justice Gogoi heard the matter sitting in a combination of two judges. At least four different judges sat with him during these six years. He heard the case for the first time sitting with Justice HL Gokhale.

After Justice Gokhale retired on March 10, 2014, the matter was heard by Justice Gogoi first with Justice MY Eqbal and then with Justice RK Agrawal.

Subsequently, the matter was heard by the special bench of Justices Gogoi and Rohinton Nariman until Justice Gogoi retired earlier this month.

THE CASE WAS BEING HEARD BY THE BENCH COMPRISING JUSTICE GOGOI AND JUSTICE ROHINTON NARIMAN