Supreme Court begins livestreaming of Constitution bench hearings

New Delhi: In a first, the Supreme Court on Tuesday started livestreaming of Constitution Bench hearings. The livestreaming was done on YouTube.

A Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India U U Lalit, reserved its judgement on a batch of petitions challenging the 103rd sConstitutional amendment which introduced 10% reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in education and public employment.

Besides the CJI, the Constitution Bench comprised Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi and JB Pardiwala. The Attorney General for India, K K Venugopal, had contended on behalf of the Centre that SCs and STs had been loaded with benefits and that EWS have been given 10% quota in admissions and jobs out of 50% general category seats for the first time without eroding the totally independent reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs.


In a related development, the SC has constituted fourth Constitution Bench to hear five cases. The Constitution Bench comprises Justices S Abdul Nazeer, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and BV Nagarathna will hear cases including plea questioning the legality of the 2016 demonetisation decision.

Other cases include pleas pertaining to freedom of speech of public/state functionaries.