The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed the date for hearing the review petitions against its September 28 majority judgment allowing women of all ages entry into the hill shrine at Sabarimala in Kerala, on November 13, 2018.
On Monday. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the date would be fixed for a hearing on a mentioning made by the National Ayyappa Devotees Association.
The court had declined to stay the judgment. It had also refused to hear them before it closed for Dussehra holidays on October 12.
The petitions, including the one filed by Shylaja Vijayan, president of the National Ayyappa Devotees Association, argued that ‘reform’ does not mean rendering a religious practice out of existence on the basis of a PIL petition filed by “third parties” who do not believe in the Sabarimala deity.
A Constitution Bench of the court, in the 4:1 majority judgment , upheld the 12-year-old PIL plea filed by the Indian Young Lawyers Association challenging the prohibition of women aged between 10 and 50 from undertaking the pilgrimage to the temple. The Bench found that a restriction on women solely based on her menstrual status was a smear on her individual dignity.
It was like “treating women as the children of a lesser God is to blink at the Constitution.” It was a “form of untouchability” abolished decades ago. The ban on women was derogatory to equal citizenship. The right to practise religion should yield to the right of dignity of women aged between 10 and 50.
Nair Service Society's plea
The Nair Service Society, in its review petition, contended that the court should take judicial notice that an “overwhelmingly large section of women worshippers are supporting the custom of prohibiting entry of females between the age of 10 and 50 years at Sabarimala temple.”
The lifting of the prohibition at the instance of third parties, in spite of opposition by a large section of women worshippers, is anomalous, the petition said.
A review by Chetna Conscience of Women argued that a Pandora’s box would be opened if a constitution court began entertaining petitions that purely pertain to faith, customs, practices and beliefs.
Plea against 'non-Hindu' women going up hill to temple
Meanwhile, a petition filed by the Akhila Bharatheeya Ayyappa Dharma Prachara Sabha asked the court to direct the Kerala government and the Travancore Devaswaom Board to bar “non-Hindu” women from trekking up the hill to the temple.
The Sabha, represented by advocate V. Usha Nandini, said action should be taken against “erring officials” from using the State machinery to create communal disharmony by promoting non-Hindu women to trek up the hill to the temple.
