SC sets 10 days for hearing Sabarimala

Bench to also hear other gender bias cases in religion practices

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 28

The nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will complete the hearing on issues relating to gender discrimination in religious practices in 10 days.

“It cannot take more than 10 days. Even if someone wants more time, it cannot be given,” said a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. The Constitution Bench would take up purely legal questions, it added.

The CJI’s clarification came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that senior lawyers could not finalise common legal questions to be considered by the nine-judge Bench. As Mehta requested the court to consider framing the constitutional questions, the CJI asked him to submit issues dealt with by lawyers in the meeting.

The top court had on January 13 asked four senior advocates to meet on January 17 to finalise issues relating to gender discrimination in various religious practices, including those at Sabarimala Temple in Kerala, to be taken up by it.

Besides CJI Bobde, other judges on the Bench are: Justice R Banumathi, Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice L Nageswara Rao, Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar, Justice S Abdul Nazeer, Justice R Subhash Reddy, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant.

It had clarified that it was not considering the review petitions filed in the Sabarimala Temple case and posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.

While deciding review petitions on Sabarilama Temple entry restriction issue, the Supreme Court had on November 14 enlarged the scope of the issue and referred to a larger Bench issues relating to discriminatory practices in other religions as well for laying down constitutional principles for determination of such issues.

By a majority verdict of 3:2, a five-judge Bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had framed seven issues for consideration of the larger Bench for enunciating constitutional principles to be followed in dealing with such issues in any religion. The other two judges who were part of the majority verdict were Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Indu Malhotra.

The majority verdict took note of the fact that the debate about constitutional validity of practices entailing the restriction of entry of women in places of worship was not limited to Sabarimala Temple alone but also arose in respect of entry of Muslim women in a durgah/mosque and entry of Parsi women married to a non-Parsi into the holy fire place of an Agyari. If a particular practice was essential to a religion was also pending before it in respect of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community, it had noted.

Earlier, by 4:1 verdict, a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by the then CJI Dipak Misra had on September 28, 2018, allowed entry women, irrespective of their age, into the Sabarimala Temple by declaring the age-old practice unconstitutional. Justice Malhotra, the lone woman on the Bench, had dissented.