Lawyers’ help sought to set issues on religious practices for hearing

The Supreme Cout’s 9-judge Constitution Bench on Monday adjourned for three weeks the hearing on discrimination against women in various religions, asking 4 senior lawyers, including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, to help frame the issues to be dealt by meeting on Friday.

The lawyers, in tandem with the court’s secretary general, will decide if several issues referred to the larger 5-judge Bench on Nov 14 need to be reframed, the Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde-headed bench said.

The bench said it will not go into the specifics of each case like Sabarimala temple and would strictly go by the reference order of November 14 in deciding the scope of judicial intervention in matters of religious issues.

It wants the lawyers to reduce the issues instead of seven questions of law set out by the Nov 14 ruling by a 3-2 majority and decide who will address which issue and for how much time. These were: interplay between freedom of religion under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution; need to delineate the expression 'constitutional morality'; the extent to which courts can enquire into particular religious practices; meaning of sections of Hindus under Article 25 and whether 'essential religious practices' of denomination or a section thereof are protected under Article 26.

“We will grant three weeks time for this (deciding the issues) and we will put this matter after that for hearing,” the court said.

It said it will consider listing the pleas related to the entry of Muslim women into mosques, female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims and barring of Parsi women, married to non-Parsi men, from the holy fireplace at Agiary. These were not listed before the court on Monday as all petitions listed were relating to the Sabarimala matters.

A majority verdict by then CJ Ranjan Gogoi and Justices AM Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra decided to keep pending pleas seeking a review of its verdict about women’s entry into the shrine, and said curbs on women in religious places were not restricted to Sabarimala alone and was prevalent in other religions also.