A view of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu
A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court has commenced the final hearing on petitions relating to discrimination against women at religious places, including Sabarimala Temple, and on the ambit and scope of religious freedom practised by multiple faiths.
The Bench is set to specifiically look into Articles 25 and 26 that deal with freedom of religion and religious denomination.
In the previous hearing on Tuesday (April 7, 2026), Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for Centre said restricting a particular gender within a specifc age group from entering a place of worship is not discrimination.
The Constitution Bench comprised Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices B.V. Nagarathna, M.M. Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B. Varale, R. Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi.
Read: Women cannot be seen as ‘untouchables’ for three days a month: Justice Nagarathna in Sabarimala case
In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench, by a 4:1 majority verdict, had lifted the ban that prevented women of menstruating age from entering the Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala in Kerala and held that the centuries-old Hindu religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional.
However, in 2019, another five-judge bench headed by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi, referred the issue of discrimination against women at various places of worship to a larger bench.
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