India’s Supreme Court on Monday suspended a state-level court’s ban on a religious practice called santhara, a fast to the death most often undertaken by the sick and aged.

The high court in the state of Rajasthan banned the practice on Aug. 10, ruling that fasting to the death was tantamount to suicide, which is illegal in India, and that assisting someone in the fast was also a crime.

The decision angered activists representing the Jain religion, which has around six million adherents in India. Lawyers set in motion a number of petitions to the Supreme Court, and thousands of Jains protested last week, some carrying signs that read, “Suicide is crime, santhara is religion.”

India’s top court agreed Monday to hear the case and placed a stay on the Rajasthan ruling. The stay will probably remain in place for at least four years until the decision comes up for a hearing, according to The Times of India, a daily newspaper.

The case was initiated in 2006 by an activist who argued that the practice amounted to suicide and that relatives sometimes forced it on family members who could no longer properly give consent. Defenders of the practice, which is considered to bring honor to a family, argue that it is both distinct from suicide and essential to Jainism, which celebrates acts of radical renunciation.