Holding that it was fundamental right of women to enter temples and it was the State’s duty to protect it, the Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Maharashtra Government to take “all necessary steps” to implement strictly the Maharashtra Hindu Place of Worship (Entry Authorisation) Act 1956 which prescribes six months’ imprisonment to those prohibiting anyone from entering the place of worship.
Invoking Articles 14, 15 and 25 of the Constitution, A Division Bench of Chief Justice DH Waghela and Justice MS Sonak asked the BJP-led saffron alliance Government to take “pro-active” steps to implement women’s rights “are fully realised and not allowed to be encroached upon by any authority".
On a day when the State Government assured the High Court that it would implement scrupulously Maharashtra Hindu Place of Worship (Entry Authorisation) Act 1956, Chief Justice Waghela noted: “The Maharashtra Government shall take all necessary steps to implement the Act. Ultimately it is the fundamental right of a woman and our (Government) fundamental duty to protect this right”.
In a landmark direction that will help eliminate gender bias at places of worship in the State, the HC bench said: "The acting Advocate General has assured the court that the government is against gender discrimination. Keeping in view Article 14, 15 and 25 of the Constitution of India, the Government can take pro-active steps to ensure that the fundamental rights of a citizen are fully realised and not allowed to be encroached upon by any authority".
Hearing a Public Interest litigation filed by senior advocate Nilima Vartak and activist Vidya Bal challenging prohibiting the entry of women in the Shani Shingnapur temple, the HC bench directed the secretary of Maharashtra's Home Department to ensure that the policy and purpose of the Act “is fully carried out, and directions are issued to all district collectors and Superintendents of Police”.
Earlier, Acting Advocate General Rohit Deo gave an undertaking to the high court saying that it would take “all necessary steps” to comply with the provisions of the Act which prescribes a punishment of six months’ imprisonment for those preventing anyone from entering a temple.
"The provisions of the Act shall be scrupulously implemented. The Government is completely against gender discrimination. A circular or directive shall be issued to all district authorities informing them about the Act and its provisions," the acting AG told the high court.
The HC bench, which had on Wednesday made a telling observation that “no law prevents women from entering a place of worship and if men are allowed, then women too should be permitted”, averred that while the Maharashtra Government’s statement was “good enough”, it was necessary for the state administration “to strengthen the hands of the authority who is on the field”.
“Making a statement that the Act and its provisions will be implemented and enforced and that you (Government) are against gender discrimination is good enough. But you have to strengthen the hands of the authority who is on field and has to take action as per the Act,” the HC bench said.
While disposing of the PIl, the HC bench made it a pointed that the direction it had passed to the State Government was general in nature and not specific to any particular temple, the Judges noted: "This court can only pass a general direction. We cannot go into individual or specific cases. If any person has grievance that the Act is not being implemented, then he or she can approach local authority with their complaint".
During the course of his submission before the high court, Acting AG Deo clarified that the provisions of the Act would not be of any help if a temple in the State did not allow any person, irrespective of their gender, inside the sanctum sanctorum. “However, if a temple allows men in the sanctum sanctorum but prohibits women, then this Act and its provisions can be used,” he said.
Describing the high court’s direction to the state government to ensure the entry of women into the temples as the “victory of women power”, Bhumata Rangranai Brigade (BRB) convenor Trupti Desai – who and her fellow activists had been campaigning for the past three months against the gender bias at temples in the state, announced in the afternoon that she and colleagues would go to the Shani Shingnapur temple on Saturday.
“We welcome today’s ruling of the Bombay High Court. This is a victory of women power and the campaign we had launched. In view of today’s ruling, my other fellow women activists and I will go to the Shani Shingnapur temple and offer prayers and offer prayers to the presiding deity at the platform,” Desai said.
Replying to a question, Desai said that she had not spoken to either the temple management or the Shingapur villagers who had in the past opposed the entry of women inside the Shani temple. “I have not spoken to the temple management or the villagers. Unlike in the past, this time around, the state Government is on our side. We will tell the police this evening that we intend to go the Shani temple and ask them to facilitate our smooth entry up to the platform near the presiding deity,” she said.
It may be recalled that on January 26, 500-odd activists were detained by the Ahmednagar police at Supe toll naka, while they were on their way to storm the Shani Shingnapur temple and force entry inside the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.
Subsequently on March 7, more than 100 women activists owing affiliation to the BRB, led by Trupti Desai, were detained when they were on their way from Pune to Nashik to storm the Trimbakeswar temple seeking an entry into its sanctum sanctorum.
The failed attempt by the BRB women activists to storm the Shani Shingnapur temple on the occasion of Republic Day had come in the wake of a sensation that a woman from Pune had created by breaking a five-century-old taboo, climbed up to “chauthara” (a platform) housing the idol of lord Shani on November 28 last year.
The act of her performing puja had been captured on the CCTV of the temple the following morning. Irked by the incident, the temple management sacked seven security personnel and “purified” the idol by performing an “abhisheka” with milk on the following day.
Ironically enough, the protest action by BRB had come a fortnight after the temple management created history of sorts by electing unanimously Anita Chandrahas Shetye as the first-ever woman chairperson of the temple trust.
After her election as the chairperson of the temple trust on January 11, Anita Shetye had announced that she would continue enforce the five-century-old tradition of barring women from climbing up to “chauthara” housing the presiding deity to offer prayers.