New Delhi: If God does not discriminate between men and women, why should discrimination exist in temples, asked the Supreme Court on Friday, saying it would review the practice of banning girls who had reached puberty from the Sabarimala temple.
“We want to test this on constitutional parameters,” the bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, said. It also asked senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Travancore Devaswom Board, to state whether the practice was “intricately fundamental” to religious custom or practice, which would make it an issue not under its jurisdiction.
The bench, also comprising Justices P.C. Ghose and N.V. Ramana, referred to the Bhagwad Gita and said that neither the Vedas nor the Upanishads discriminate on the grounds of gender.
“The god does not discriminate between men and women, so why there should be gender discrimination in premises of the temple,” the bench said.
Venugopal, who sought six weeks to file evidence including documents and ancient scriptures on the issue, said this practice of prohibiting girls who had reached puberty from entering Sabarimala had been followed for centuries.
The bench also took note of Kerala government’s recent stand and said: “You have filed an affidavit by taking an opposite stand. We will test it also as to whether a can take a somersault or U-turn”.
“A state or a party can always correct its earlier erroneous stand,” senior lawyer V. Giri, appearing for Kerala, said.
Kerala government, in its recent affidavit, said that banning entry of women of menstruating age in the temple was a “matter of religion” and it was duty-bound to “protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees”.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for an intervener, said women were part of the human race and they must be allowed into the temple. “Women can also observe celibacy,” she said while countering Venugopal’s submissions.