Year Ender 2019: 'From Ayodhya To Rafale,' A Look At 5 Landmark Verdicts By The Supreme Court

(Photo by SANJAY KANOJIA / AFP)

The year 2019 was marked by several landmark verdicts by the Supreme Court. The court saw former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi’s end of tenure this year, and appointment of Justice SA Bobde as the new CJI. Many of the historic decisions were taken during the tenure of ex-CJI Gogoi. From decade-old Ayodhya land dispute case to Sabarimala review, here are 5 landmark judgments by the SC.

CJI Office Under RTI: In another landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on November 13, held that the office of Chief Justice of India is public authority under the purview of the transparency law, Right to Information Act (RTI). A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi pronounced the judgement a short while ago and upheld the Delhi High Court verdict of 2010. Other members of the bench are Justices N V Ramana, D Y Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

Contempt Case Against Rahul Gandhi: The apex court closed a criminal contempt plea against Congress leader Rahul Gandhu filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi for wrongly attributing to the apex court his chowkidar chor hai remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal case. The court said “Mr Rahul Gandhi needs to be more careful in future”. It is unfortunate that without any verification certain remarks were made by the contemnor (Rahul Gandhi) against the prime minister, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said.

Sabarimala Verdict Review Pleas The Supreme Court transferred the review petitions against entry of women in Sabarimala temple to a larger 7-judge bench today in a 3:2 verdict. The court did not put a stay on the September 28, 2018 judgment which lifted the ban on the entry of women aged between 10 and 50 in the temple. According to this order, women of all ages can visit the shrine till a larger bench decides this issue. The constitution bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, heard the review pleas on November 14.

Rafale Review Pleas: The Supreme Court on November 14 rejected petitions seeking an inquiry into the Rafale fighter jet deal. The top court said it found no merit in the pleas for review of its earlier ruling in which it had given a clean chit to the government and ruled out any roving inquiry into the deal for procuring 36 fighter planes from French company Dassault. The court had on May 10 reserved its order on the petitions filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan and former Union ministers Yashwant Singh and Arun Shourie, seeking a review of its ruling of December last year that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process involved in the Rafale deal.