“Let a Muslim woman come, then we will consider” SC Milords Dismiss PIL Seeking Muslim Women Entry To Mosques, Ban Purdah

The Supreme Court today dismissed a public interest litigation filed by Swamy Dethatreya Sai Swaroop, President of the Kerala unit of the Akhil Bharath Hindu Mahasabha, seeking a direction to allow Muslim women to offer prayers inside mosques and to ban the purdha system, legal commentary site Bar and Bench reported.

“Let a Muslim woman come, we will consider then,”a three-judge bench comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said, after questioning the locus standi of the petitioner.

The petition is an appeal against an order of the Kerala High Court which had rejected the plea.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court had dimissed petition, observing that Swaroop was neither an aggrieved party nor were his rights affected. The High Court had said the petitioner was motivated by a desire to have “cheap publicity”

The Supreme Court bench referred to the Kerala High Court order which had dubbed the plea as a publicity exercise before dismissing the plea.

Interestingly the main petitioner in the Sabarimala case seeking entry of woman was Naushad Ahmad, the then president of Young Lawyers Association.