Haji Ali verdict: Here's what the affidavit says

Until 2012, women were allowed access to the inner sanctum of Haji Ali dargah

In another month, women will finally be allowed to enter and worship in the sanctum of the Haji Ali Dargah. After years of fighting off the idea, the Dargah Trust finally gave in yesterday and agreed to grant equal access to women as instructed by the Bombay High Court in August. However, the Trust has made it clear that here on, nobody would be allowed to touch the mazaar or sanctum sanctorum.

For the first time since the ban was imposed in 2012, women will soon be able to enter the sanctum of Haji Ali Dargah again. File pic

This change comes about a month into the Muslim New Year.

The Trust had initially moved the apex court to challenge the high court order, but the petition was disposed of by the Supreme Court after the Trust agreed to abide by the order.

The dargah's senior counsel, Gopal Subramanium, informed the court that they had passed a new resolution on October 11 to allow women into the sanctum sanctorum.

However, the Trust mentioned two conditions. Firstly, the trustees asked for four weeks' time to implement the order.

And, in an additional affidavit, the Trust also made it clear that here on, nobody would allowed to touch the mazaar or sanctum sanctorum.

No touching
According to the new affidavit submitted by the Trust before the apex court, neither men nor women will be allowed to touch the sanctum sactorum of Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari.

Male worshippers, who earlier had this privilege, will also be kept five feet away from the mazaar. Only the priests will have full access.

The trust will be putting barricades, along with signboards asking women to maintain the dress code and decorum.

The trust also plans to hire a new architect to make the necessary structural changes to keep men and women away from the mazaar of the Sufi saint, and, for this reason, requested for four weeks to carry out the alterations.

Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao agreed to grant the requested time.

Less access or more?
However, some were of the opinion that this was a step backward, rather than forward.

Senior counsel Raju Moray, who appeared for the women's group fighting for equal access, told this paper, "Restricting access to men in order to bring them on par with women is not the same as allowing access to women on par with men. It certainly cannot be termed as restoration of the status quo as directed by the High Court on August 26. High Court order is thus bypassed rather than implemented. Trust's idea of gender justice is obviously different from ours, though technically it may be consonance with the constitutional right to equality."