SC resumes work after break: Apex court extends Assam NRC deadline, upholds KV Chowdary's appointment as CVC

After a break of 44 days, the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday heard a slew of petitions and set the next date of hearing in the case of appointment of Lokpal and publication of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC). The court is also expected to take up a lengthy list of matters in July, including Aadhaar’s constitutional validity, the Ayodhya case and the power struggle in Delhi.

On 6 July, a three-member bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra will resume hearing the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi title dispute case.

Here is what the Supreme Court said on Monday:

Assam’s National Register of Citizens

The apex court on Monday extended its 30 June deadline for publication of the final draft of Assam’s NRC by a month, after the Centre and the state coordinator agreed to publish it within the new time limit.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman considered the report of state NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela and extended the deadline.

Hajela had last week said it would not be possible to release the final draft of the NRC as scheduled on 30 June due to the floods in state. The NRC is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in Assam.

The bench asked the state chief secretary and DGP of Assam to immediately provide adequate security to Hajela and his family members, including his children, in view of the work done by him. It asked them to file a compliance report immediately after taking a decision on the issue.

The apex court said it will consider all the interlocutory applications and other related matters on 31 July.

Appointment of Lokpal

SC also directed the Centre to apprise it within 10 days about the time frame for appointing Lokpal in the country. A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi asked the government to file an affidavit within 10 days giving details of the steps which are likely to be taken for appointing the Lokpal.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, placed before the bench the written instructions which he had received from the government on the issue of appointment of Lokpal.

The bench has posted the matter for hearing on 17 July.

The court was hearing a contempt petition filed by NGO Common Cause, which had raised the issue of non-appointment of the ombudsman despite the apex court’s verdict of 27 April last year.

Kathua rape case witnesses

SC asked three witnesses, who had alleged harassment at the hands of special investigation team (SIT) probing Kathua rape and murder case, to approach the Jammu and Kashmir High Court with their grievances.

The three witnesses, Sahil Sharma, Sachin Sharma and Neeraj Sharma, who were the classmates of one of the key accused in college, had alleged harassment by the SIT and sought an independent enquiry into it.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud refused to order a probe into the allegation of the witnesses that they were harassed during the process of recording of their statement before the state police.

The bench disposed of their petition giving them the liberty to approach the high court with their grievances.

Appointment of KV Chowdary

A plea challenging the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) KV Chowdary and Vigilance Commissioner (VC) TM Bhasin was dismissed by the apex court on Monday. A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said there were no grounds to quash their appointments.

The plea alleged that they did not have a “clean record” and a non-transparent procedure was followed while appointing them.

Notice to Uttar Pradesh govt

The Supreme Court sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea alleging that several fake encounters have taken place in the state in recent past. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the PIL filed by the NGO, People’s Union for Civil Liberty (PUCL).

With inputs from PTI