Next hearing on 16th amendment appeal May 21

The Supreme Court has fixed May 21 for the next hearing on an appeal filed against a High Court verdict that scrapped the 16th constitutional amendment that empowered Parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges. A five-member bench led by the Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha set the date after the second day’s hearing on Tuesday. The Appellate Division started hearing on the appeal plea on Monday. On September 17, 2014, the parliament passed the ‘Constitution (16th Amendment) Bill, 2014’ empowering the Parliament to impeach judges of the Supreme Court due to their incapability or misconduct. Nine Supreme Court lawyers filed the writ petition with the High Court on November 5, 2014, praying to consider the 16th Amendment as illegal and unconstitutional. Following the writ petition, High Court declared the 16th amendment to the constitution illegal on May 5, 2016. The High Court, however, allowed the government to move an appeal before the Appellate Division against its verdict. The government filed an appeal against the verdict on January 4.