The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by the state president of the Kerala unit of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha to allow Muslim women to enter mosques for offering prayers, PTI reported.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose refused to entertain the plea filed by Swamy Dethathreya Sai Swaroop Nath, who had appealed against the Kerala High Court order of October 2018 on the same. It upheld the Kerala High Court order which had said that the public interest litigation was motivated and used for “cheap publicity”.
“Who are you?,” the Supreme Court asked, according to Bar and Bench.“How are you affected? Let the aggrieved persons come before us. Let a Muslim woman come, then we will consider. We do not see any merit to interfere with the high court order. The petition is dismissed.”
The Kerala High Court had stated in its order that media reports were published even before the public interest litigation was taken up for hearing and it appeared to be a motivated petition, apparently meant for cheap publicity.
“We suspect therefore that this PIL is motivated by a desire of the petitioner for cheap publicity,” it had said. “We are of the view that the proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution of India cannot be permitted to be misused for such purposes.”
It also noted that there was a lack of “material that would suggest that there is an established practice whereby Muslim women are being denied entry into masjids”. “A petition alleging violation of fundamental rights must indicate the nature of the right that is allegedly breached, the factual components of such right, as also the action that resulted in its breach,” the court had said.
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