Sabarimala women entry: Supreme Court’s 9-judge Constitution Bench to begin review hearing from April 7

Supreme Court to review Sabarimala women entry case with a nine-judge Bench starting April 7, 2026, after pandemic delay

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 16, 2026) scheduled a series of review and writ petitions concerning a September 2018 judgment, which allowed women of menstruating age to enter into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, for hearing before a nine-judge Constitution Bench from April 7, 2026.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the maintainability of the review petitions had already been decided by an earlier nine-judge Bench constituted in 2019 by then Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde. The hearings before the Bench had to be aborted abruptly due to the onset of the COVID pandemic.

The Sabarimala case has come up for the first time after a gap of nearly five years and post the pandemic. Chief Justice Kant is the only remaining serving judge of that original nine-judge Bench.

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The Supreme Court gave a brief timeline for the hearing of the case in April 2026. The nine-judge Bench would hear the review petitioners challenging the 2018 judgment from April 7 to April 9. Those opposing them would be heard from April 14-16. The rejoinder submissions would be heard on April 21, followed by the concluding submissions from the amicus curiae on April 22. Parties have to adhere to the timeline, the court stressed.

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