New Delhi: Everyone expected Supreme Court would settle the legal battle over women's entry at Sabarimala once and for all on Thursday when it considered 65 petitions seeking a review of its order dated September 28, 2018 that allowed women of all ages to enter the hill shrine in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district.
But the court did not deliver a final judgement. Instead, it referred the review petitions to a larger seven-judge bench. The new bench will decide whether there is a need to review or stay the court's previous order. Apart from Sabarimala, the bench will re-examine some other issues, including Muslim women's entry at mosques, the right of Parsi women who married outside community to access the Tower of Silence and the practice of female genital mutilation in the Muslim Dawoodi Bohra community.
Thursday's decision essentially means that there is no bar on women's entry at Sabarimala and the Supreme Court's 2018 verdict continues to be in force.
Majority verdict
A majority verdict by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra decided to keep pending the pleas seeking a review of its decision regarding the entry of women at Sabarimala. A minority verdict by Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud gave a dissenting view by dismissing all the review pleas and directing compliance of its September 28 decision.
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, reading out the majority verdict, said it has to tread cautiously at this stage. He also expressed doubt whether the question of essential religious practices should be left to the discretion of religious heads, and wanted clarity on this point.
Justice Nariman, who read out the dissent, sounded deeply disappointed with the move of the majority judges to link Sabarimala women's entry with women-related practices in other religions. He said the issues of Muslim and Parsi women were not before the Sabarimala bench.
The dissenting judgment was especially critical of the widespread violence in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on September 28. Justice Nariman said "organised efforts" to subvert the Supreme Court verdict should not be countenanced.
Background
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had reserved its decision on the review petitions on February 6.
Other members of the bench are justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
The apex court, by a majority verdict of 4:1, on September 28, 2018, had lifted the ban that prevented women and girls between the age of 10 and 50 from entering the famous Ayyappa shrine and had held that this centuries-old Hindu religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional.
The five-judge constitution had heard the pleas in an open court and reserved its decision after hearing the parties, including Nair Service Society, Thantri of the temple, The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and the state government, in favour and against the review plea.
