New Delhi, November 14: The seven-bench Supreme Court bench, which will be constituted to re-examine the permit granted to women of all age groups in the Sabarimala temple, will also look into the issue of women being barred from visiting mosques. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, while announcing the verdict on the batch of review pleas filed against its erstwhile order on Sabarimala, said the larger bench will wholistically look into the issue.

"The entry of women into places of worship is not limited to this temple, it is involved in the entry of women into mosques and Parsi temples," CJI Ranjan Gogoi was reported as saying while pronouncing the court order.

Notably, the apex court was petitioned earlier this year by a Pune-based couple - Yasmeen Zuber Ahmad Peerzade and Zuber Ahmad Nazir Ahmad Peerzade - seeking a judicial order to allow female devotees to enter inside the mosque.

Update by ANI:

The Pune-based couple's plea was admitted by the top court in April 2019. Their counsel, in his opening arguments before the apex court, had claimed that there is no ruling in the Holy Quran or Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)'s hadith which ban the entry of women in mosques.

"A mosque is not an individual person. There are no records stating that the Holy Quran and Prophet Muhammad had opposed women entering mosques and offering prayers...Like men, women also have the constitutional rights to offer worship according to their belief," the counsel had said.

The Muslim clergy is not unanimous on the issue of women's entry into mosques. A section of the clerics have been votaries for a separate section at mosques which would be reserved only for women.

"At present, women are allowed to offer prayers at mosques under Jamaat-e-Islami and Mujahid denominations, while they are barred from mosques under the predominant Sunni faction," the plea stated.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 14, 2019 12:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).