Women’s entry at Sabarimala: Supreme Court refers matter to larger bench

Five judge bench rules by 3:2 majority, Justices Chandrachud and Nariman dissent

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday referred to a larger bench pleas seeking a review of its 2018 ruling that allowed menstruating women from entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra said a larger bench will hear if the court can decide matter of religious practice. Justices R F Nariman and DY Chandrachud gave dissenting opinion.

The bench said petitions 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, according to News18.com.

The court had on September 28, 2018, scrapped a ban on women and girls between 10 and 50 from at the temple, ruling that a centuries-old Hindu religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional. The verdict comes two days before the temple opens for the two-month-long pilgrimage season from November 16. The court’s verdict sparked protests across Kerala, mainly led by caste outfits like the NSS and right-wing Hindu organisations of the Sangh Parivar…

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Prohibitory orders in Sabarimala temple extended till December 22

A string of protests has been witnessed in the state after the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing women of all age groups to enter the Lord Ayappa shrine

Pathanamthitta Magistrate Court has extended the prohibitory orders in Sabarimala Temple till the midnight of December 22. The decision has been taken based on reports by the District Police Chief and Executive magistrates in Pamba and Sannidhanam.

Prohibitory orders issued under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)prohibits assembly of more than four people in an area. The restriction is enforced when there are safety concerns.

A string of protests has been witnessed in the state after the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing women of all age groups to enter the Lord Ayappa shrine. Earlier on Tuesday, a group of 30 women aged between 10 and 50 years has sought permission from the Kerala chief minister to visit Sabarimala temple on December 23.(Click Here: Business Standard OR BS)

The women delegation said they had sent a letter to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking permission and security while visiting the temple, and have been told that their request has been forwarded to concerned police personnel. Till this time, no women in the 10-50 age group has succeeded in offering prayers at the shrine as various people have been protesting against the court’s decision.

An unholy mess: How BJP is using Sabarimala issue to make inroads in Kerala

The protests against Sabarimala verdict have exposed the ingrained obscurantism beneath the veneer of a progressive society and the cynical politics of religion that is at play

Latest News : Kerala is under siege like never before in its volatile history. As the state struggles to get back on its feet after the worst floods in a century, it is convulsed in a violent religious campaign that belongs to another time and place. For the saffron brigade, the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the entry of women of all ages into the hilltop temple of Ayyappan in Sabarimala has come as a godsend, the perfect handle to reignite the regressive religious campaign that the RSS-BJP cohort has been pushing for decades in the last Left bastion in the country.| Sabrimala Temple 

In just three weeks after the SC judgement, Kerala has been reduced to a violent, seething mass of agitators seeking to preserve the status quo at a forest-bound temple that debars women between 10 and 50 years from entering its precincts. From Pandalam, seat of the erstwhile royal family which claims a kinship with the deity, to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, thousands of protesting women, organised by the hydra-headed RSS and various Hindu outfits, have been swarming across the state demanding that the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government file a review petition in the Supreme Court and also issue an ordinance to stop women of the restricted age group from going to Sabarimala. The protests have exposed the ingrained obscurantism beneath the veneer of a progressive society and the cynical politics of religion that is at play.

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