(Ranjan Gogoi, Arun Mishra and Prafulla C. Pant, JJ.)
Public Interest Foundation & Ors. __________________ Petitioner(s)
v.
Union of India & Anr. __________________________ Respondent(s)
Writ Petition(s) (Civil) No(s). 536/2011, decided on March 8, 2016
(with appln. (s) for bringing on record and bringing on record the additional facts and intervention and permission to appear and argue in person and office report)
With
W.P. (Crl.) No. 208/2011 (With appln.(s) for permission to file additional documents and Office Report) W.P.(C) No. 800/2015 (With Office Report)
The Order of the court was delivered by
Order
1. One of the questions referred to the present Bench is extracted below :
Whether disqualification for membership can be laid down by the Court beyond Article 102(a) to (d) and the law made by Parliament under Article 120(e)?
2. In view of Article 145(3) of the Constitution, it is a Bench of a minimum of five Judges, which in our considered view, ought to answer the above question.
3. Though, the learned counsel appearing for the Union of India has placed before us a decision of the Constitution Bench in 2014 (9) SCC 1, titled as “Manoj Narula v. Union of India”, particularly, the view expressed by brother Justice Madan B. Lokur, having read the said views, we cannot agree with the learned counsel that the same conclusively answers the question referred to us, as extracted above.
4. We, therefore, direct the Registry to place the papers before Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India on the administrative side for referring the matters to a larger Bench in view of Article 145(3) of the Constitution.
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