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

India'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.

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