NEW DELHI : A nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde on 13 Jan, is set to hear the longstanding issue on allowing girls and women of all ages into the renowned Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala.
No judges from the previous Benches are included. The Broader Bench apart from the CJI comprises, Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, MM Shantanagowdar, SA Nazeer, R Subhash Reddy, BR Gavai and Surya Kant.
The previous Bench while referring the matter had said, the debate on the constitutional validity of religious practices like bar on entry of women and girls into a place of worship was not limited to Sabarimala alone. It extended to entry of Muslim women into mosques and dargahs and ban on Parsi women, married to non-Parsi men, from participating in religious rituals. The Bench said, it was time for the apex court to evolve a judicial policy to do “substantial and complete justice”,
