Agencies / New Delhi
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and asked it to respond on a petition seeking permission for Muslim women to enter mosques to offer prayers.
A bench, headed by Justice SA Bobde, told the counsel appearing for the petitioners that it will hear the matter because of the apex court’s judgment in the Sabarimala temple case. In the petition, a couple has sought the apex court’s direction to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the practice of prohibiting the entry of Muslim women into mosques to offer prayers.
During the hearing, the bench also sought to know from the petitioners’ counsel as to whether Muslim women were allowed to enter a mosque in foreign countries. The counsel informed the bench that Muslim women were allowed to enter a mosque at the holy Mecca and also in Canada.
In September last year, a five-judge constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, had allowed entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. It had said, the ban amounted to gender discrimination