NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered open court hearing in all the 49 review petitions filed in connection with the row over the entry of women in Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The hearing will be held on January 22.
A batch of 48 petitions seeking review of the judgment would be taken up for consideration in-chamber by a bench of Chief Justice Gogoi and justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
On September 28, a five-judge constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, had paved the way for enthe try of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Temple saying the ban amounted to gender discrimination.
“It is a judgment welcomed by hypocrites who were aspiring for media headlines. On the merits of the case, as well, the said judgment is absolutely untenable and irrational, if not perverse,” it had said.
Besides the association, several other petitions, including one by the Nair Service Society (NSS), have been filed against the apex court verdict. The NSS had said in the plea that as the deity is a ‘Naistika Brahmachari’, females below the age of 10 and after the age of 50 years are eligible to worship him and there is no practice of excluding worship by females.
“Hence, the delay or wait for 40 years to worship cannot be considered as exclusionary and it is an error of law on the face of the judgement,” the plea had said.
