It’s official, Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan will head the larger Bench scheduled to decide the constitutional validity of the Act providing 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in higher educational institutions. The hearing on the batch of petitions filed in the apex court challenging the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006 will commence from August 7. Along with the CJI, the Bench would see Justice Arijit Pasayat hearing the matter.

It was the Bench comprising Justices Pasayat and L S Panta, which on March 29 stayed implementation of the Act, forcing the Centre to move the Chief Justice’s court for referring it to a larger Bench. Justices C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari will be the other judges on the bench.