Sabarimala, Rafale among four vital judgements to be delivered by CJI next week

New Delhi: After the historic verdict on the Ayodhya land dispute matter, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi-headed bench of the Supreme Court is left with four other important judgements that have to be delivered within a week before he demits office on November 17.

The bench will pronounce its verdict in another political sensitive case in which a review has been sought of the December 14, 2018, judgement by which the Narendra Modi-government was given a clean chit in the procurement of Rafale fighter jets.

His bench will also pronounce its verdict on a plea seeking criminal contempt proceedings against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the apex court his “chowkidar chor hai” remark against Modi in connection with the Rafale case.

Besides, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Gogoi will pronounce judgement on the pleas seeking review of the top court’s verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

On April 4, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Gogoi had also reserved its verdict on three appeals filed in 2010 by the Secretary General of the Supreme Court and its Central Public Information officer against a Delhi High Court order that the CJI’s office falls under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

In the Rafale case, the top court would decide the pleas, including one filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, seeking review of its December 14 judgement giving a clean chit to the Centre’s Rafale deal to procure 36 fighter jets from French firm Dassault.