The Supreme Court on Friday extended the stay on women's entry inside Mumbai's Haji Ali Dargah after its managing board said it will come out with a progressive stand on the matter in two weeks. The bench said, "Troubles are created when at a place men are allowed and women are not." The next hearing is scheduled for October 17.
In August this year, the Bombay High Court had lifted the ban that barred women from entering the inner sanctum of the dargah. The high court had argued that preventing women from entering the shrine was unconstitutional. It had said that the ban violated articles 14, 15, 19, and 25 of the Indian Constitution, which deal with the right to equality, the right against gender-based discrimination, freedom of movement and freedom of religion. However, the court had stayed the order for six weeks after the dargah's trust sought time to challenge the verdict in the apex court.
The matter was taken up by the high court after activists and the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan filed a plea seeking entry into the inner sanctum of the Haji Ali Dargah. The shrine's trust had banned women from entering the mausoleum in 2011, arguing that it was a "grievous sin" in Islam for women to be in close proximity to the grave of a Muslim saint.
In April, Bhumata Ranragini Brigade leader Trupti Desai had visited the dargah but was stopped from entering the inner sanctum. After her visit, Desai, who had earlier campaigned for women's right to enter the Shani Shingnapur Temple in Maharashtra, had said the dargah administration should relax their restriction.
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