9-judge Supreme Court bench to take up Sabarimala case on February 3

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that a nine-judge Constitution Bench will on February 3  frame questions to adjudicate the larger issue of legality and essentially of religious belief and practices discriminatory to women.

The larger question to be addressed by the constitution bench will include the legality and essentially of religious belief and practices prohibiting the entry of women in mosques and temples, genital mutilation in Dawoodi Bohras and the ban on the entry of Parsi woman in the fire temple after she has married outside the Parsi community.

The nine-judge bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justices R. Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan, L. Nageswara Rao,  Mohan N. Shantanagoudar, Abdul Nazeer, R. Subhash Reddy, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant on Thursday said also expressed disappointment over senior lawyers not been able to arrive at a consensus on the issues to be addressed. “We are little disappointed as you could not arrive at a consensus. Now a nine-judge bench will go through the questions submitted by some of you (advocates) and try to crystallise the issues on February 3,” the CJI said.