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).
