Maintaining that “this is an era of intolerance and when it comes to religious matters people become very sensitive”, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday expressed its reluctance to sit in judgement over the ban on women into the sanctum sanctorum of the iconic Haji Ali Dargah here.
“Today the atmosphere is such that everything is taken in another way. This is an era of intolerance. When it comes to religious matters people become very sensitive,” Justice VM Kanade of the high court said, as he advised the parties involved to settle the issue outside the court.
Justice Kanade made this telling observation, while a HC division bench—comprising him and Justice Revati Mohite Dere – was hearing a petition challenging the rule imposed by the Haji Ali Dargah trust which bars entry of women in the ‘sanctum sanctorum’ of the Dargah which houses the tomb of the 15th century Sufi saint Haji Ali.
In his elaboration, Justice Kanade said: “Earlier in a similar matter where the Parsi Panchayat had banned entry of Parsi women who married out of their caste inside their Fire Temple we (court) did not take any decision and asked them to go for an out of court settlement. The aggrieved women then approached the Supreme Court and got some relief”.
The court has scheduled the next hearing of Haji Ali Dargah trust’s petition for December 15. Earlier, the trustees of the Haji Ali Dargah had told the court that entry of women in close proximity to the grave of a male Muslim saint was considered as a grievous sin in Islam.
“At a meeting that the trust had convened to reconsider the ban move following the directive from the high court, it had been again unanimously decided by the trustees not to allow women in the sanctum sanctorum,” the trustees told the court.
Among things, the trust justified the move to ban the entry of women into Haji Ali’s sanctum sanctorum, saying the ban was to protect women from “uncomfortable situations.”