The Supreme Court Wednesday reserved verdict on a batch of petitions seeking review of its September 28, 2018 judgement. (File)The Supreme Court Wednesday reserved verdict on a batch of petitions seeking review of its September 28, 2018 judgment that allowed women of all age groups to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.
Following a marathon hearing that lasted more than four hours, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reserved its judgment on as many as 65 petitions — 56 review and four fresh writ petitions — and said that it would pronounce its order on whether to review the judgment or not.
While the Kerala government stuck to its stand and opposed any review of the Sabarimala verdict, the Travancore Devaswom Board, which controls the Lord Ayappa temple, made a U-turn, saying it supported the entry of women of all ages.
“We have taken a decision to respect the judgment lifting age restrictions on women entry,” senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who represented the Board, said. The Travancore Devaswom Board is an autonomous body controlled by the state government.
Kanaka Durga, 39 (L) and Bindu Ammini, 40, the first women to enter Sabarimala temple. (File)At this, Justice Indu Malhotra, the lone judge who had given a dissenting verdict and ruled in favour of the customs, reminded Dwivedi that the board had earlier opposed the entry of women of all ages to the temple. The Board had earlier contended that the celibate character of Lord Aiyappa at Sabarimala temple was a unique religious feature which was protected under the constitution.
Responding to Justice Malhotra, Dwivedi said a particular class could not be discriminated on the ground of “biological attributes”. “Women cannot be excluded from any walk of life on biological attributes… equality is the dominant theme of the Constitution”, he said. The bench also comprised of Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.
Appearing for the Kerala government, senior advocate Jaideep Gupta told the bench that many of the petitioners seeking a review of the judgment had not come out with valid legal points and the court should not entertain them. “The exclusion of women is not essential to Hindu religion,” the Kerala government said.
Former attorney general and senior advocate K Parasaran, appearing for the Nair Service Society, assailed the majority verdict, saying Article 15 of the Constitution threw open for the public the secular institutions of the country but it doesn’t deal with religious institutions.
“The article throws open all public institutions of secular character for all classes of citizens but the article conspicuously omits religious institutions,” he told the bench.
Since the Supreme Court verdict, the Kerala government has said just two women, between the ages of 10 and 50, have entered the temple at Sabarimala — Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga, both in their early 40s. They had climbed the hill at Sabarimala in the cover of police protection on the morning of January 2.
