Apex court sets up constitution bench

NEW DELHI: A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court would hear on March 6 a contentious issue that had cropped up after a threejudge bench had raised concern over “judicial discipline” and propriety arising due to conflicting views of different benches of the apex court in matters relating to land acquisition.

The issue had come to fore on February 21 when a three-judge bench had virtually stayed the operation of a verdict delivered on February 8 by another three-judge bench of the top court, which had held that compensation not availed within a stipulated five year period would not be a ground for cancellation of land acquisition.

On February 21, the threejudge bench had observed that perhaps there had been a tinkering with judicial discipline in arriving at a conclusion as the issue should have been to referred to a larger bench in case of difference of opinion, as a 2014 verdict passed by another three-judge bench had held that non-payment of compensation would be a ground to cancel the land acquisition.

The very next day when another matter on the land acquisition issue came up for hearing before a two-judge bench, it had referred the case to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for constituting an “appropriate bench” to deal with the “piquant” situation that had arisen after the February 21 order.

Now, a five-judge constitution bench has been set up by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra to deal with the issue.

Besides the CJI, Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan are part of the bench, which would hear the matter on March 6.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur had on February 21 referred to the February 8 judgement and observed that if “judicial discipline” and propriety were not maintained, the institution will “go forever”.