ISLAMABAD, May 8: A major legal battle is to start in the Supreme Court from Monday when a full court comprising 14 judges will commence hearing on identical petitions, including one filed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry challenging the formation of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and President Pervez Musharraf’s move to file a reference against him on misconduct.

The full court was constituted by Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Rana Bhagwandas on Tuesday on the recommendation of a five-member larger bench which stayed the proceedings of the reference before the SJC.

Four senior judges of the Supreme Court will, however, not appear in the full court as a short order by the larger bench on Monday barred three members of the judicial council, ACJ Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, who earlier had declined to hear the petitions, from sitting in the full court.

The bench will commence day-to-day hearing from May 14 to decide 23 petitions filed by the chief justice and others, including Mohammad Shoaib Shaheen, the Watan Party, Adliya Bachao Committee, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

Headed by Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, the full court comprises Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Falak Sher, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice M. Javed Buttar, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Syed Jamshed Ali and two ad hoc judges -- Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.

Amid the raging judicial crisis, legal experts are watching with interest and attaching great importance to the formation of the full court which has been formed after November last year when the chief justice himself had constituted an 11-member full court to settle a dispute between two claimants over the SCBA presidency.

Now himself a petitioner before the full court, the chief justice has raised as many as 132 questions, including the competence of the SJC to try the Chief Justice of Pakistan, constitution of the Supreme Judicial Council without the CJP, personal bias and prospects of advancement of some of the members of the council, alleged mala fides and collateral purpose of the referring authority and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the haste with which the referring authority (the president) acted against the CJP, illegal suspension and forced leave, illegal assumption of office by the acting chief justice, the executive assault on the independence of the judiciary and proceedings in camera.

PROTEST: The Pakistan Bar Council on Tuesday announced that lawyers would continue protest against the presidential reference and would observe on a daily basis a one-hour token strike and a four-hour hunger strike throughout the country.