‘Faith can be irrational, Sabarimala not science museum’: Supreme Court told

A five-judge Supreme Court bench that started hearing over 50 petitions on entry of women into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple has been told that the constitutional bar on discrimination does not apply to religious places.

A five-judge Supreme Court bench that started hearing over 50 petitions on entry of women into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple has been told that the constitutional bar on discrimination does not apply to religious places. Senior lawyer K Parasaran, who appeared for the Nair Service Society, told the bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi that religious places had been left out of Article 15 of the Constitution that prohibits discrimination on grounds such as religion, caste and gender.

On September 28, the top court ruled by a 4-1 majority that no woman can be stopped from entering Sabarimala temple, ending a traditional ban on the entry of women into the over 800-year-old shrine in south Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. (HT Photo)

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“The omission to consider this aspect constitutes an error apparent on record,” said Parasaran, who was the government’s top law officer more than 30 years ago. The Nair Service Society, which is one of the 60-odd parties to approach the Supreme Court on its September verdict, opposes entry of women in the menstruating age of 10 to 50 to the hill-top shrine.