Massive Thursday in Supreme Court: Verdicts on Sabarimala, Rafale reviews

Thursday is set to witness a series of important verdicts in the Supreme Court. First, a 5-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Nariman, Justice Khanwilkar, Justice Chandrachud and Justice Malhotra will pronounce its verdict on a batch of petitions seeking review of the SC’s order lifting the ban on entry of women between 10 and 50 years at the Sabarimala temple in Kerala at 10.30 am. This will be followed by its decision on a contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi and a review petition of the SC’s verdict on the purchase of the Rafale jets.  

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The Sabarimala case 

The SC’s verdict in the Sabarimala case had sparked off huge protests across Kerala. The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) which manages the shrine, argued that the SC could not interfere with a century-old belief. The ban on entry of women has been justified on the grounds that Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity is celibate. On the other hand, the government of Kerala supported the verdict maintaining that religious practices that clashed with fundamental rights could be set aside. The Constitution bench had reserved its verdict on February 5 after hearing arguments from various parties.

Read: Senior Supreme Court Judges Hail CJI Gogoi For Ayodhya Verdict

Contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi 

BJP Member of Parliament Meenakshi Lekhi had accused former Congress president Rahul Gandhi of misquoting an order of the SC. Rahul Gandhi had said that the apex court had accepted that ‘chowkidar’ is a ‘chor’. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, ‘Chowkidar chor hai’ was often used by Gandhi to imply that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had committed wrongdoing with reference to the Rafale deal. After the SC issued a contempt notice against Gandhi, the latter tendered an apology seeking closure of the proceedings. However, Lekhi urged for initiating action against the former Congress president as the apology was not ‘unconditional’. 

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Rafale verdict review 

On December 14, 2018, the apex court had dismissed petitions demanding a court-monitored probe into the intergovernmental deal between India and France to purchase Rafale jets from Dassault Aviation. But some petitioners including Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, and Prashant Bhushan moved the SC seeking a review of this order, following an apparent error in a sealed document filed by the Centre at the Supreme Court that contended that the CAG report on the deal had been submitted to Parliament whereas it actually wasn't. The SC bench, led by Chief Justice Gogoi reserved its verdict in May earlier this year. 

Read: Ayodhya Verdict: The Supreme Court's Entire Judgement; READ HERE