No stay on Sep 28 verdict: Women of all ages can enter Sabarimala until larger Bench decides

New Delhi, Nov 14: With the Supreme Court referring the Sabarimala matter to a larger Bench, there was no clarity at first whether the earlier judgment of the court would remain in force.

Many had expected a subsequent order that would spell out whether the September 28 2018 verdict of the Supreme Court allowing entry of women of all ages into Sabarimala would remain in force or not. The temple opens on November 16.

An interpretation of today's verdict would mean that the earlier order of allowing women of all age groups into the Sabarimala Temple would remain in force. The majority which referred the matter to the larger bench was silent on whether the earlier judgment would be stayed or not.

The Supreme Court 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 7 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 were 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.