Taking the spiritual route to beat the religious ban prohibiting women from entering Sabarimala temple, the Supreme Court on Friday quoted Bhagwad Gita to both the Kerala Government and the Travancore Devasom Board to show that the Scripture never discriminated against women.
Wondering how the State supported the ban, the court gave the Board and the State Government six weeks time to present evidence from Hindu Vedas, shastras and puranas justifying the ban. The court said it will examine the scriptural prohibitions alongside the Constitution prohibitions and appointed two senior lawyers Raju Ramachandran and former Delhi HC judge K Ramamoorthy to assist in the matter.
The Kerala Government had filed an affidavit in response to a PIl by NGO Indian Young lawyers Association questioning the ban as a ground of gender discrimination. The State reversed its earlier stand questioning the ban and replaced it with a fresh stand supporting the tradition followed at Sabarimala to prohibit women aged between 10 and 50 years who are of menstrual age from visiting the shrine. In doing so, the State quoted tanthris who believed that lord Ayyappa is a “Naisthik Brahmachari” and presence of women can cause deviation to god from his celibacy and austerity.
With the matter coming up for the first time since the change of stand by the State, the Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, PC Ghose and NV Ramana questioned the “somersault” on part of the Government. State Counsel senior advocate V Giri said that the State was duty-bound to rectify any error in the decision taken by previous Governments.
The court wished to know if an instance of discrimination was intrinsic to Hindu faith and belief. “Is spirituality only for men and are women incapable of it,” the Bench asked the State. Senior advocate KK Venugopal, who appeared for the Board, sought six weeks to produce additional documents supporting the prohibition.
He said that the hill on which Sabarimala is built is considered holy and women are not permitted to step on it.
Women rights activist and former ASG Indira Jaising who appeared for an NGO supporting entry of women at Sabarimala said that Constitution does not contemplate restriction on women from entering any place of worship. Even the petitioner NGO submitted that to worship was an individual’s fundamental right. The bench said, “A temple by common parlance is a public place. By this connotation, the temple may have rules that fix a time of opening and closing. But here what is debated is a system or practice that makes discrimination. This needs research if this discrimination between man and woman has prevailed historically.”
The Court cited Gita and said, “There is no discrimination in Gita. lord Krishna never made any difference between man and woman.” Former Attorney General K Parasaran who appeared for Nair Service Society agreed to submit on the philosophical and religious aspects related to the ban. The bench is expected to hear the case next on April 11.