The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard the petition that sought women’s right to enter Kerala’s famous Sabarimala Temple.
The apex court said that the Hindu religion professes no denomination of a Hindu male or female.
“A Hindu is a Hindu,” the apex court said as it heard a Public Interest Litigation or PIL, filed by the Indian Young Lawyers’ Association (IYLA), seeking entry of women in the Sabarimala temple.
On Monday, the Supreme Court had said it would decide on the right of women to enter the historic Sabarimala shrine on the basis of constitutional principles and not by the prevalent customary practices, saying that “gender justice was endangered” in India.
“We will now only be guided by the rationale under the Constitution. The gravity of this petition is that gender justice is endangered,” a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had said.
“Can you deny a woman her right to climb the Mount Everest? The reasons banning anything must be common for all and on the bedrock of the Constitution,” the bench, also comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph, said.
Last week, the Bombay High Court had ruled that women must be allowed access to the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, where temple officials had cited a 400-year-old tradition to insist that only men could enter the inner sanctum of the shrine.