Aadhaar, gay sex, Sabarimala among 8 matters before SC from next week

Amid the ongoing rift between the Chief Justice of India and four senior-most judges over assignment of cases, the Supreme Court's five-judge constitution benches will commence hearing on eight critical matters, including the validity of Aadhaar, from January 17.

The information was uploaded on the website of the apex court.

Besides the challenge to the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act, the constitution benches, the composition of which has not been uploaded so far on the court's website, will also deal with a challenge to its 2013 judgment, re-criminalising gay sex between consenting adults.

The constitution benches would hear the contentious issue relating to the ban on the entry of women between 10 and 50 years of age in Kerala's Sabarimala temple and also resume the hearing on a legal query on whether a Parsi woman would lose her religious identity if she married a man from a different religion.

Another contentious matter relates to the challenge to the validity of a penal law on adultery, which only punishes a married man for having an extra-marital sexual relationship with a woman married to someone else.

The other issues which would be dealt with by the constitution benches include a plea as to when will a lawmaker, facing a criminal trial, stand disqualified.

All these matters were earlier referred to larger benches for adjudication on important legal issues by separate benches of the apex court.

These matters will come up for hearing from January 17.