India's top court hears challenges to ruling on women's entry into temple

India's top court hears challenges to ruling on women's entry into temple13 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleGeeta PandeyBBC CorrespondentBBCSabarimala is among the most famous Hindu temples in IndiaIndia's Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging a landmark 2018 order that allowed women of menstruating age into the famed Sabarimala temple in southern Kerala state.The nine-judge constitutional bench, set up by Chief Justice Surya Kant, will also consider other similar cases from different faiths.So, the court's guidelines will also help decide whether women can be denied entry into Parsi temples and Muslim mosques, whether religious leaders can excommunicate people and the legality of female genital mutilation.Legal experts say the court's decision will have far-reaching consequences for women's religious freedoms and right to enter places of worship.The Sabarimala temple does not allow women of menstruating age so only young girls or elderly female pilgrims can visit the shrineThe petitions challenge the landmark 2018 Supreme Court judgment which struck down the ban on women of menstruating age from entering Sabarimala.Hinduism bars menstruating women from participating in religious rituals, regarding them as unclean. Many temples deny women entry during their periods and several devout women voluntarily stay away, but Sabarimala prohibits entry of all women between the ages of 10 and 50.Dedicated to Hindu deity Lord Ayyappa, the temple attracts millions of male devotees from across the country every year. Many elderly women and young girls also visit the shrine.In their 2018 order, the top court judges said keeping women out was discriminatory and unconstitutional as "the right to practise religion is available to both men and women".Indu Malhotra, the only woman on the five-judge bench who has since retired, dissented with the majority verdict saying "issues of deep religious sentiments should not be...