NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court referred a bunch of petitions challenging the age-old practice in the famous Kerala Sabarimala temple of not allowing women aged between 10 and 50 to enter, to a five-judge Constitution Bench. A bench will now decide whether the rights of women, especially their fundamental right to religious freedom and to pray at the place of their choice can be discriminated against by a temple managed by a statutory board. Temple authorities justified the practice saying it is founded in tradition.
Framing questions for reference, a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, said primarily the Constitution Bench would decide whether the practice of ban on women was gender discriminatory, violating their right to equality, religious freedom. Also, it will decide whether the ban is protected by Article 25 (the right of religious freedom) of Ayyappa devotees. The Constitution Bench will answer the question whether a 1991 judgement of the Kerala High Court upholding the ban would amount to res judicata. It will decide whether the ban qualifies as an “essential religious practice” of the Hindu faith.
It will also decide whether Ayyappa devotees form a separate religious denomination by themselves. Most importantly, it will decide if a temple managed by a statutory board can “indulge” in the practice of banning women from entry on moral grounds. The Constitution Bench will decide whether the ban enforced under Rule 3 (b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship Rules, 1965 violates the fundamental rights of women to practice religion freely.
