Supreme Court sends notice to Centre after woman demands mosque entry

After Sabarimala, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set out to examine the right of Muslim women to enter mosques and Idgahs after a Pune couple filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in court demanding an end to this discrimination faced by Muslim women.

Although initially, the bench of Justices SA Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer was hesitant to entertain the petition, it agreed to issue notice to the Centre, Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs, National Commission for Women, Central Wakf Council, and All India Muslim Personal Law Board after the petitioner's counsel Ashutosh Dubey referred to the Sabarimala verdict given by a Constitution Bench of the apex court, which allowed women of all ages to offer prayers at the temple.

Dubey appeared for a Muslim couple Zuber Ahmad Nazir Ahmad Peerzade and his wife Yasmeen, who claimed they were denied the right to pray together in the temple due to a restriction on women from entering the mosque. Besides discrimination against women, who are equal citizens as men, such a restriction affects gender equality as proposed in the Sabarimala verdict pronounced by the Supreme Court in September 2018. When the court wished to know if women are allowed in mosques in any part of the world, the petitioner cited the example of Mecca in Saudi Arabia and mosques in Canada.

The court further said, "Can one individual assert his or her right to equality against another individual. Ultimately, violation of Article 14 – the right to equality of citizens – is to be enforced against the State. Is a mosque or a temple or church, classified as state? In our opinion, there are a body of individuals who manage it. It's like if you want to prevent a person from entering your home, you call the police to be allowed to enter."

The petitioner counsel argued that most mosques receive grants from the State and hence acquire the character of a State. The bench concluded, "Only reason we have agreed to hear you is because of our earlier judgment in Sabarimala." The petition even approached the local Imam of the Pune mosque to get reasons for denying entry to women. However, the Imam refused to have knowledge of the same forcing the couple to approach the apex court.