SC to reopen today after six-week vacation, will hear key cases including Rafale, Ayodhya

After six-week summer vacation, the Supreme Court will reopen on Monday and will hear many important and sensitive cases including Congress president Rahul Gandhi contempt case, Ayodhya Babri Masjid land dispute and Rafale review petitions among others.

The court was closed for the annual summer vacation from May 13 to June 30.

The apex court will work, after a full sanctioned strength of 31 judges -- after a long time -- with the recent appointment of two judges including Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

The court will also pronounce the judgement on a slew of review petitions pending before it.

It had reserved its verdict after hearing from former ministers, Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Prashant Bhushan, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. They wanted a direction to review the court's last year verdict, which had rejected their petitions for directing a probe into the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France

The top court will also pronounce the order on review petitions filed in the entry of women of all ages into the popular Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

The Ayodhya Babri Masjid land dispute matter, the most sensitive and important case, would also be heard, as the court, in its last hearing, had granted more time and asked the panel of mediators to amicably resolve the case through dialogues by August 15.

Although Gandhi had tendered his unconditional apology for his alleged jibe on "chowkidar chor hai" remark, the Supreme Court will hear the case and see whether the prosecution should be initiated or not against him.

A five-judge Constitution Bench will also deliver its judgement in a case whether the Chief Justice of India's office is covered under the purview of the transparency law, Right to Information Act (RTI).

The top court will also begin hearing of pleas challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A roster which was issued, on June 2, by the top court will be implemented from Monday.

As per the new latest roster system, the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) matters will now be heard by the benches headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra and Rohinton Fali Nariman.

The four Justices will hear the PILs assigned to them by the CJI.

The election matters, which were vested earlier exclusively with the bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, will now be shared with the bench headed by Justice Bobde.

According to the roster, Justices MM Shantanagoudar and S Abdul Nazeer will now head benches at the apex court.

-ANI