A constitution bench of Supreme Court today will pronounce its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking permission for women aged between 10 and 50 to enter the 800-year old Sabarimala temple in Kerala.
A five-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice RF Nariman, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra had reserved the judgment on August 1.
The Indian Young Lawyers Association was the first to file a plea in 2006 in the Supreme Court seeking scrapping of the temple law that restricted women's entry. After about a decade, the apex court took up the case for hearing in January 2016.
The SC will consider whether the exclusion of women (between the 10-50 age group) amounts to “discrimination” and is therefore against the Constitution. The top court will also examine if excluding these women is an “essential religious practice” under Article 25 (which guarantees right to freedom of religion) of the statute and if a religious body can assert a claim in this regard under the pretext of its right to manage its own affairs.
The claim of temple authority that the shrine has a denominational character will also come under the scanner of the top court, which will consider if ‘religious denomination’ managed by a statutory board can be allowed to be financed under Article 290-A of the Constitution of India by the Kerala exchequer.
The LDF government of Kerala, which has been changing its stance, made its stand clear at the Supreme Court in July this year. It said that all women irrespective of their age must be allowed to enter Sabarimala temple and the gender discrimination at the temple must end.
Earlier in 2016, UDF regime had told the court that it was duty bound to protect the tradition banning entry of women into the shrine.
It is unclear since when or why women aged between 10 and 50 are not being allowed to enter the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. According to Thantri Mandalam president V R Nampoothiri, the temple was not a public place, instead, the home of the deity. The final word on the customs and practices, which are 800 years old, must be vested with the Hindu books of Thantrasaram, Saradathilakom and Thantrasamuchayam and not the legislation, he says.