Starting September 20, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is set to deliberate on three crucial cases.

As per a notice uploaded on the offical website of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a constitution bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices A S Bopanna, M M Sundresh, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will take up these matters from September 20.

The matter that will be brought before the Constitution Bench concerns the constitutional validity of section 6A of the Citizenship Act, which deals with the status of illegal immigrants in Assam.

Under the provision, individuals who arrived in Assam from specified territories, including Bangladesh, between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, as per the amended Citizenship Act of 1985, and have since become residents of Assam, are required to register themselves for citizenship under section 18.

Similarly, the other important matter relates to the pleas challenging the constitutional validity of extending reservation to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in Lok Sabha and the state assemblies beyond the original 10-year period contemplated in the Constitution.

Article 330 of the Constitution provides for reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the house of people.

In 2019, a bench led by the then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had referred the pivotal question to a larger bench, recognizing its significant implications and substantial public importance.

The three-judge bench had indicated its intention to reevaluate a 24-year-old ruling in the high-profile Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) bribery case. This decision came in response to an appeal filed by Sita Soren, an MLA from the JMM representing the Jama constituency in Jharkhand.

In its 1998 ruling by a five-judge Constitution Bench in the PV Narasimha Rao versus CBI case, the Supreme Court had established that parliamentarians enjoyed constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution for any speeches made and votes cast within the legislative house.