Deciding between faith and rights! SC refers Sabrimala case to 7 Judge larger Bench for review

New Delhi, November 14: While the Supreme Court today was to announce its judgment on the review petitions against its 2018 judgment allowing women of menstruating age to enter and worship in the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, it has referred to a larger bench, seek review.

 

This is days before CJI Ranjan Gogoi demits office on November 17. The verdict also comes just two days ahead of the Sabarimala Temple reopening for the two month long mandalam season from November 16.

 

Reading out the judgment, the bench said that the petitioners had sought to revive the debate about what's the religion and essential religious practices. “Individual right to pray at temple cannot be superior to what is considered as religious by another sect is what petitions have argued,” the court said. The apex court also clarified that the right of women to enter mosques and that of Parsi women to enter fire temple are also connected matters. Noting that courts should tread cautiously in matters of religious beliefs, the court referred it to a seven-judge bench.

 

The SC by a majority verdict of 4:1, on September 28, 2018, had lifted the ban that prevented women and girls between the age of 10 and 50 from entering the famous Ayyappa shrine in Kerala and had held that this centuries-old Hindu religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional. In February 2019, the Supreme Court had reserved judgment after hearing several pleas filed by parties such as the Nair Service Society, the priest of the temple and the Travancore Devaswom Board, seeking a review of the court’s September 28 judgment.

Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the situation, around 2,500 policemen and women will be posted in and around the temple complex for two weeks. State Minister for Devasoms, the body that looks after temple affairs, Kadakampally Surendran is also reviewing the arrangements on a daily basis and by now various facilities like 40 drinking water counters, over 800 drinking water taps, five emergency medical centres, oxygen parlours besides 1,500 washrooms have also been set up in and around the temple complex.

 

Situated in the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level, Sabarimala temple is four kilometres uphill from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district, which is around 100 kms from the capital city. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu celibate deity Ayyappan, also known as Dharma Sastha, who according to belief is the son of Shiva and Mohini, the feminine incarnation of Vishnu.