Login With Google
‘Review court can refer questions to larger Bench’
Why in news?
- A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court recently upheld the decision of the five-judge Sabarimala Review Bench to refer to a larger Bench questions on the ambit and scope of religious freedom practised by multiple faiths across the country.
More in news
- The nine-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) S.A. Bobde, said a Bench engaged in the review of a particular judgment could indeed refer other questions of law to a larger Bench. Arguments on merits would be heard from February 17.
- Bench also framed following 7 questions of law which it would decide:
(1) What is the scope and ambit of religious freedom under Article 25 of the Constitution?
(2) What is the interplay between religious freedom and rights of religious denominations under Article 26 of the Constitution?
(3) Whether religious denominations are subject to fundamental rights?
(4) What is the definition of ‘morality’ used in Articles 25 and 26?
(5) What is the ambit and scope of judicial review of Article 25?
(6) What is the meaning of the phrase “sections of Hindus” under Article 25 (2)(b)?
(7) Whether a person not belonging to a religious group can question the practices, beliefs of that group in a PIL petition?
- Wider issues
(1) On November 14 last year, the Gogoi Bench, in a majority judgment, did not decide the Sabarimala review cases before it. Instead, it went on to frame “larger issues” concerning essential religious practices of various religions.
(2) It further clubbed other pending cases on subjects as varied as female genital mutilation among the Dawoodi Bohras to entry of Parsi women who married inter-faith into the fire temple and Muslim women into mosques and referred them all to a larger Bench.
(3) The reference order also asked the larger Bench to consider the rule pertaining to the prohibition of entry to women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple.
Sources
The Hindu