Sabarimala entry: SC terms 41-day ‘penance’ impossible

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 19

Senior counsel K Parasaran on Thursday defended the restriction on entry of menstruating women into Sabarimala Temple in Kerala and asked the Supreme Court to refrain from attempting to change the character of the deity who is a celibate God.

“If you are saying the deity is not a ‘Naishtik Brahmachari’ (unfailing celibate); you are changing its character… the character of God,” Parasaran, who is  representing the Nair Service Society told a five-judge Bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra.

The Bench also comprising justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra is seized of PILs against the age-old tradition of keeping women of menstruating age (10-50 years) out of the famous Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple — one of the holiest Hindu shrines — situated on a hilltop in Kerala. The tradition is rooted in the belief that the deity is a celibate (Naisthik Brahmachari).

The petitioners have challenged Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorization of Entry) Rules, 1965, which restricts the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50 to the shrine.

The Bench – which would resume hearing on July 24 — termed the condition of observing a 41-day ‘vrat’ before undertaking a pilgrimage to the Sabarimala shrine as “impossible”, saying it led to the ban on the entry of women of menstruating age.

“You are imposing it. You put 41 days so that a woman can’t go. It is imposition of an impossible condition... What you can’t do in law, you do it indirectly,” the CJI said.

On the behalf of Devaswom Board — which manages the over 800-year-old Lord Ayyappa temple, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said it is only shrine in the world which didn’t allow women of menstruating age inside it.