The Sabarimala reference matter has been listed by the Supreme Court Registry for Monday, February 3.
The nine-judge bench will assemble to decide what issues they are going to hear and which counsel will argue what question of law in Kantaru Rajeevaru v Indian Young Lawyers Association with its connected matters.
A three-judge bench had on Thursday said that it was disappointed that the counsels could not arrive at a consensus on the list of questions to be answered by the bench. It said that the bench would pass orders on case management, fixing timelines and other modalities for the hearing, which the bench has already directed to conclude within 10 days as arguments would be heard only on specific points of law.
The five-judge bench, which was hearing the review matter of the September 28, 2018 judgement, had referred seven questions on November 14, 2019 for consideration by a larger bench while the minority judges had posed a few more questions relating to similar disputes in other faiths.
Last year, an apex court bench had said that the September 28, 2018 judgement in the Sabarimala matter was not the last word of the court, thus tentatively delaying the hearing in women’s rights activists’ plea for protection to women wishing to enter the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala.
Here is a detailed post on the Supreme Court’s observations in the September 2018 judgement.
— India Legal Bureau