Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday asked an advocate representing the petitioners in a contempt plea against Sabarimala chief priest to be present when a five-judge Constitution Bench hears 54 different review petitions against the court’s Sabarimala judgment on February 6.
The petitions have sought a review of the September 28 verdict lifting the bar on women of menstrual age from undertaking the pilgrimage to the famed temple in Kerala. The Review Bench is led by Chief Justice Gogoi.
The Sabarimala case was earlier scheduled for January 22, but had to be cancelled as Justice Indu Malhotra was on medical leave. The September 28 judgment had declared the exclusion, solely based on the menstrual status of women, to be a smear on individual dignity. It said the bar amounted to “treating women as the children of a lesser God.”
Justice Malhotra, in her dissent, had declared the prohibition on women aged between 10 and 50 years to be an “essential practice.” The judge had held that imposing the court’s morality on a religion would negate the freedom to practise religion according to one’s faith and beliefs. Justice Malhotra’s judgment has since then become a rallying point for the review petitioners.