Women entry allowed into Sabarimala: SC

The Supreme Court is giving landmark verdicts these days. Two days ago, the verdict was given about Aadhaar mandatory linking, day before yesterday the verdict was about Section 497 of the Indian Penal code and yesterday it was about the entry of women into Sabarimala.

So far, women in the menstrual age are not allowed into Sabarimala under the grounds that menstruation is impure. This practice has been followed for several years.

Only girls below the age 10 years and women after the age of 50 years are allowed into the temple along with all age groups of men.

But yesterday, the Supreme Court said that women of all ages are allowed into Sabarimala stating that a woman’s right to pray is a Constitutional right and it is not dependent on any law.

The debate on this matter has been continuing for several months in the court.

The court while hearing stated that women are worshipped as goddesses in India, hence they cannot be treated as weak.

However, several devotees are not happy with this verdict. They said that the ban of women entering into the temple is a matter of faith which had been continuing for several years.

Several devotees are even saying that the entry of women inside the temple is the cause of floods in Kerala.

They felt that the court should not interfere with the religious practices as it might hurt their sentiments. Often it might lead to social tensions.

The Travancore Devaswom Board which is managing the administration of temple said that they would go for a review petition once they get support from other religious heads.

The Board said that they rely on Article 26 of the Constitution which states about a religious denomination of right to manage its own internal religious affairs.

However, the Apex Court ruled that Lord Ayappa temple does not set up a separate religious denomination.

Image credit: Flow…. image by ragesh ev is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rageshev/2088575613