In a 3:2 verdict, SC refers Sabarimala matter to a 7 Judge Bench

New Delhi, Nov 14: The Supreme Court has referred the Sabarimala matter to a larger Bench. In a 3:2 verdict, the Bench said that the matter will now be heard by a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, Justices A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra in a majority verdict said that the matter should be heard by a larger Bench. Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud in their dissenting view maintained that matter not be referred to a larger Bench.

The majority on the Bench was of the view that this issue needs to go up before a larger Bench. The Bench clubbed the entry of women into Mosques, Parsi women to the tower of silence with the Sabarimala issue.

Justice R F Nariman, however, dissented and said that these are issues for the future Constitution Benches. He said that the original judgment in the Sabarimala case was based on a bona fide PIL, which raised issues of women discriminated against for their entire period of puberty due to a physiological feature.

When the judgment is declared, it is final and binds all. Organised efforts to subvert the judgment should be put down determinedly as this is the judgment of the Supreme Court, Justice Nariman in his dissenting verdict said.