Justice Indu Malhotra, who was part of the five-judge Constitution bench that delivered the order allowing all women into the temple, is currently on medical leave
Citing her presence Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it will decide a fresh date for hearing review petitions challenging its judgment lifting age restrictions on the entry of women to the Sabarimala temple
“We will have to ascertain from the learned judge when she will be available. She is on medical leave. Only then can we fix a date. She is on leave till (January) 30th,” said Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi when a lawyer brought the matter to the notice of a bench, which also included Justices L Nageswara Rao and Sanjiv Khanna.
The review petitions were originally scheduled to be heard by a five-judge bench comprising the CJI and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Malhotra on Tuesday, but could not be taken up as Justice Malhotra is on medical leave.
On September 28 last year, a bench comprising then CJI Dipak Misra and Justices Nariman, Khanwilkar, Chandrachud and Malhotra had set aside rules upholding age restrictions on the entry of women to the Kerala temple.
This led to protests by Hindutva groups and as many as four dozen review petitions were filed in the apex court seeking review.
