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Kerala firm on lifting temple ban
Why it is in news?
- The Kerala government reaffirmed in the Supreme Court its complete support for lifting the prohibition on women of a certain age group from entering the famous Sabarimala temple in Kerala.
- The court reserved the case for judgment.
- The customs of the temple were subject to Constitutional principles and the bar on entry of women aged between 10 and 51 was a violation of their fundamental right.
- Customs come within the ambit of Article 13 and should not violate fundamental rights.
- The State government argued that the the Sabarimala deity’s celibacy cannot be used as an argument to bar women from entering the temple to offer worship.
Govt stand
- The government’s stand is the exact opposite of the Travancore Devaswom Board, which had strongly opposed the lifting of the centuries-old prohibition.
- The Board insisted that the nature of the deity in Sabarimala is of a ‘Naishtika Brahmachari’ and it should not be disturbed.
- It argued that a 1991 Kerala High Court judgment supported the restriction on women devotees.
- It found that the restriction had been in place since time immemorial and was not discriminatory.
- The court had, on October 13 last year, referred the issue to a Constitution Bench after framing five “significant” questions, including whether the practice amounted to discrimination and violated women’s fundamental rights under the Constitution.
Source
The Hindu