Senior BJP leader BL Santhosh on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to refer the Sabarimala case to a larger bench, claiming that it is in the direction of protecting rights of devotees and upholding faith.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that restrictions on women in religious places was not limited to Sabarimala alone, and was prevalent in other religions as well as it referred all review pleas to a larger seven-judge bench.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, reading the verdict on behalf of himself and Justices AM Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra, said the larger bench will decide all such religious issues relating to Sabarimala, entry of women in mosques and practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

Santhosh, BJP’s general secretary (organisation), tweeted, “Sabarimala issue referred to larger bench. Welcome decision of SC in the direction of protecting rights of devotees and upholding faith. It was never a matter of fundamental rights. It was a matter of age old tradition accepted by society.”