Timeline of entry of women to Sabarimala Temple

Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to refer to the religious issues on Sabarimala temple to a larger bench.

The apex court in a 3:2 verdict decided to keep in pending the petitions on the decision of allowing the women of all ages to the temple.

While the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices J Khanwilkar, Indu Malhotra favoured referring the Sabarimala review petition to a 7-judge larger bench, the other two judges Justice Nariman and Chandrachud were not.

Here is the timeline of events related to the entry of women to the Sabarimala temple:

In 1990, S Mahendran filed a plea in Kerala High Court seeking a ban on women’s entry to the temple and the Kerala High Court upheld it in 1991 and restricted the entry of women in menstruating age.

Again, in 2006, the Indian Young Lawyers Association filed a plea in the apex court seeking to ensure entry of women of all ages to the temple. In 2007, the LDF government of Kerala filed an affidavit supporting PIL questioning ban on women’s entry to the temple.

Later in 2016, in the month of January, a Two-judge bench of the Supreme Court questioned the practice of banning entry of women to the temple. The then Congress-led UDF government replied that it is to ‘protect the right to practice the religion of devotees’.

The court says gender justice was endangered by banning women’s entry to the temple and traditions cannot justify their ban.

Later, in the month of April, Hind Navotthana Pratishtan and Narayanashrama Tapovanam filed a plea in SC supporting entry of women and LDF government filed a fresh affidavit in November favouring the entry of women to the temple.

In 2017, the case had been referred to the constitution bench by the Supreme Court.

After several hearings, the apex court allowed all women to the temple on September 28, 2019.

After that various pleas filed in the court sought the review of the judgement.

Image credit: Shobayatra procession image by Joegoauk Goa is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joegoauk73/24499261846/