Top court holds first Constitution bench hearing on video link

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court held its first Constitution bench sitting through videoconferencing on Tuesday, with, for the first time since March 5, five judges sitting together in one court to take up critical matters that require an interpretation of the Constitution. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose appeared wearing masks and maintaining nearly two-feet distance between themselves on the bench.

Several important cases are awaiting the attention of the bench. These include the matter on rights versus faith relating to religious practices that restrict women from entering mosques, Parsi worship places and the Sabarimala temple, petitions challenging scrapping of J&K’S special status under Articles 370 and 35A, validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act granting citizenship to non-muslims from neighbouring Islamic countries, and the legal case to determine what is a money bill.