The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear all the 49 petitions seeking review of the judgment which allowed entry of women of all age groups into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala in open court. The apex court will hear the petitions on 22 January.
The top court, according to PTI, also said that there will be no stay on its verdict on the entry of women in the shrine.
Kerala BJP president Sreedharan Pillai called the apex court's decision to hear the merits of the 49 review petitions in an open court a victory for the protesters, reported News18.
The review petitions were taken up "in-chamber" on Tuesday by a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
In the in-chamber proceedings, the judges examine the review petitions by circulation and lawyers are not present.
The court had earlier said that fresh pleas related to the Sabarimala Temple will be heard only after it decides the earlier petitions. The bench stated this while hearing the three fresh petitions filed by G Vijaya Kumar, S Jaya Rajkumar and Shailaja Vijayan challenging its 28 September verdict.
On 28 September, a five-judge constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, had paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Temple saying the ban amounted to gender discrimination.