2018 order not final word on issue: CJI
New Delhi: The September 2018 Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to pray at Kerala’s Sabarimala temple is not the last word on the issue, Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde said on Thursday, agreeing to hear a woman’s plea seeking protection to visit the shrine.
Bindu Ammini, the woman, moved the Supreme Court, seeking directions for the state government to ensure that the September 2018 judgment is implemented and women are ensured safe passage to the temple. She was one of the only two women to pray inside the temple’s inner sanctum under police protection after the court’s order; about a dozen other women have attempted to do so unsuccessfully.
Kerala police have prevented girls and women aged between 10 and 50 from visiting the shrine since the two-month annual pilgrimage to the shrine began on November 16, two days after the Supreme Court referred a bunch of pleas seeking a review of the 2018 order to a larger seven-judge bench.
In a majority 3-2 verdict on, the court on November 14 did not suspend its earlier order. Justice Rohinton Nariman, who authored the minority dissenting judgment, asked the Kerala government to ensure strict compliance with the 2018 verdict.
The 2018 judgment upheld the right to equality of worship, and triggered protests in Kerala. The entry of female worshippers aged between 10 and 50 years into the Sabarimala shrine had banned for decades on grounds that Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity, is celibate.
Senior counsel Indira Jaising, who appeared for Ammini, mentioned the plea for early listing since the temple will be closed. She said that Ammini has been attacked with chemical substances.
Ammini was attacked on November 27 outside the Kochi police commissioner’s office, where she had gone to seek security for visiting the temple.
The CJI remarked that the 2018 judgment is not the last word on the issue and a much larger bench will hear the case after Jaising pointed out that the last year’s verdict has not been stayed. He agreed to hear Ammini’s petition next week along with a similar plea by another woman from Kerala, Fathima AS.
The court on Wednesday agreed to list Fathima AS’s plea next week after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves mentioned it.
Kerala law minister A K Balan on November 17 said that there was a de facto stay on the 2018 order. State temple affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran has said that they want a peaceful pilgrimage season and maintained that the government would not provide police cover to women devotees.