What is the issue?
Preventing women’s entry to the Sabarimala temple clearly offends the equality clauses in the Constitution.
What is the prohibition?
- The very purpose of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act, 1965 is to ensure entry of all Hindus to temples without being discriminatory.
- Rule 3(b), which instigates obstruction to women’s entry on the ground of menstruation, apparently runs counter to the very object of the parent enactment and is therefore untenable.
- Travancore devasthanam board bars women aged between 10 and 50 that is those who are in menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple.
- While there is no restriction on women to worship Lord Ayyappa in any other temple, their entry is prohibited only in this temple.
- It denotes a patriarchal and partisan approach.
How is this against the constitution?
- The entry prohibition takes away the woman’s right against discrimination guaranteed under Article 15(1) of the Constitution.
- It curtails her religious freedom assured by Article 25(1).
- Prohibition of women’s entry to the shrine solely on the basis of womanhood and the biological features associated with womanhood is derogatory to women, which Article 51A(e) aims to renounce.
- The managerial rights of religious authorities under Article 26(b) cannot override the individual woman’s religious freedom guaranteed under Article 25(1).
Source: The Hindu
