A woman who wants to marry in a Church of Scientology chapel has won a battle in the UK's highest court.

Scientologist Louisa Hodkin took her fight to the supreme court after a high court judge ruled that services run by Scientologists were not "acts of worship".

Five supreme court justices analysed the case at a hearing in London in July and ruled in her favour on Wednesday, announcing that the Scientology church was a "place of meeting for religious worship".

Hodkin wants to marry Alessandro Calcioli in a Church of Scientology chapel in central London.

She took legal action after the registrar general of births, deaths and marriages refused to register the London Church Chapel for the solemnisation of marriages under the 1855 Places of Worship Registration Act – because it was not a place for "religious worship".

Hodkin's lawyers had argued before the high court in December 2012 that she was being discriminated against because of her religion but Mr Justice Ouseley in his judgment backed the registrar's decision and dismissed the challenge.

A casework manager for the registrar general had argued that such a wedding could not be recognised because of the 1970 court of appeal case of Segerdal, in which judges ruled that another Scientology chapel was not a meeting place for religious worship because its services involved "instructions in the tenets of a philosophy concerned with man" and were not concerned with religious worship.