Bombay HC orders Haji Ali dargah to allow women inside inner sanctum

The Bombay High Court on Friday upheld women’s right of to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai, the scenic and popular shrine in the sea.

A division bench of Justice V.M Kanade and Justice Revati Mohite have just passed an order holding that women cannot be discriminated from entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Dargah.

The division bench order came after the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court against the Haji Ali Dargah. The court granted a six-week stay on the order for the dargah trust to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Earlier, women were allowed into the Dargah, however in June 2012, the Dargah trust decided to withdraw this right by ruling that women be disbarred from the sanctum sanctorum in conformity with the Shariah.