A nine-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, after 16 days of marathon hearing on the row related to reimposing the ban on entry of women devotees of child-bearing age into the famed Sabarimala Ayyappa Swamy Temple in Kerala, on Thursday reserved its verdict.

The verdict is expected to be delivered after two months by the bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices B.V. Nagarathna, M.M. Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B. Varale, R. Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi.

On the concluding day of the hearing, CJI Surya Kant maintained that courts cannot abdicate their responsibility of exercising the power of judicial review in matters relating to religious practices if the same is deemed to be in violation of the citizens’ fundamental rights and basic structure of the Constitution.

The CJI made the assertion while referring to arguments advanced by several lawyers that courts should not interfere in matters of purely religious practices in the name of reforms or social changes.

Veteran constitutional expert Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for some of the intervenors who had challenged the 2018 judgment that had lifted the ban, argued that courts should not assume the role of a “pope or priests” to wade into purely religious practices.

Another senior advocate, Rakesh Dwivedi, argued that in the name of adopting social reforms, courts should not
violate the fundamental
rights of religious denominations, which are protected under Article 26 of the
Constitution.

The bench was dealing with a batch of petitions and cross petitions seeking recall or defending the September 2018 judgment of a five-judge bench, which by a 4:1 majority had ruled as “unconstitutional” the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of child-bearing age at the Sabarimala temple.