Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said recent Supreme Court verdicts needed to be “studied studiously”, the Hindustan Times reported.

Earlier in the day, the top court delivered its verdicts on two review petitions – one challenging its December 2018 judgement rejecting the need for an inquiry into the Rafale fighter jet deal, and another against the September 2018 verdict to allow women of all ages into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple.

Talking about the Sabarimala judgement, he said the party will study what the majority of judges in the court said while they referred the review petitions to a larger seven-judge bench on whether women of all age groups should be allowed to enter the temple, The Hindu reported. “We heard that it was not a unanimous decision, two judges have dissented,” Yechury said in Kozhikode district. “What I can understand is that they have not stayed the earlier judgment, that means it stands.”

“Some of the recent verdicts of the Supreme Court will have to be studied studiously,” he added. “If somebody says some verdicts are in favour of a particular ideology, he cannot be blamed.”

On Wednesday, Yechury had raised doubts about the Supreme Court allowing disqualified Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) legislators to contest Karnataka bye-elections. “It is good that the Supreme Court has upheld these MLAs’ disqualification,” he told ANI. “But the apex court has allowed them to contest the bye-poll for which the reason has not been explained.”

About the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya title dispute case, the Left party in a statement had said: “The CPI(M) has always maintained that the issue should be resolved by a judicial verdict if a negotiated settlement was not possible. While this judgment has provided a judicial resolution to this fractious issue there are certain premises of the judgment which are questionable.”

Now, follow and debate the day’s most significant stories on Scroll Exchange.