SC starts process to frame norms to define equality in religious practices
NEW DELHI: A nine-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Monday started the process to lay down constitutional guidelines for examining equality in religious practices.
As the first step, a bench of CJI SA Bobde and Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, Mohan M Shantanagoudar, S Abdul Nazeer, B Subhash Reddy, BR Gavai and Surya Kant brushed aside fervent pleas against broadening the scope of the issue arising from the controversy over the SC permitting entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple to similar gender bias in religious practices in Islam and among the Parsi and Dawoodi Bohra communities.
The court held firm that a five-judge bench had referred the issue of laying down guidelines for scrutiny of such controversies arising in different petitions and that it was within its jurisdiction to deal with the same. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta said counsel for different parties had met but failed to agree on framing of issues for arguments. “However, none of the counsel raised any objection to the competence and jurisdiction of the nine-judge bench to hear the larger issue. I do not know why some of them are opposing now,” he said.
After hearing lawyers Fali S Nariman, K Parasaran, A M Singhvi, Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhavan, Rakesh Dwivedi, Ranjit Kumar, Shaym Divan, Indira Jaising, Joydeep Gupta and the SG, who argued for and against the SC laying down compreRead More – Source
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