The Supreme Court on Saturday (April 4, 2026) notified the nine-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, which is scheduled to hear the Sabarimala review case from April 7.
Besides Chief Justice Kant, the Bench would comprise Justices B.V. Nagarathna, M.M. Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, A.G. Masih, R. Mahadevan, Prasanna B. Varale, and Joymalya Bagchi.
The case consists of a series of writ pleas and review petitions based on a 2018 verdict allowing women of menstruating age entry into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala. A nine-judge Bench would be taking up the case for a substantial hearing on the Constitutional questions involved after a hiatus of over six years.
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An earlier nine-judge Bench had been constituted in 2019 by then Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde. The hearings before that Bench had to be aborted abruptly due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Justice Kant is the only remaining serving judge of the previous nine-judge Bench.
