Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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The Bench had said “treating women as the children of a lesser God is to blink at the Constitution.” It was a “form of untouchability” abolished decades ago. The ban on women was derogatory to equal citizenship. The right to practise religion should yield to the right of dignity of women aged between 10 and 50, it said. The review petitions, including the one filed by Shylaja Vijayan, president of the National Ayyappa Devotees Association, have argued that ‘reform’ does not mean rendering a religious practice out of existence on the basis of a PIL plea filed by ‘third parties’ who do not believe in the Sabarimala deity. The Nair Service Society, in its review petition, has contended that the court should take judicial notice that an “overwhelmingly large section of women worshippers are supporting the custom of prohibiting entry of females between the age of 10 and 50 years at Sabarimala temple.” The lifting of the prohibition at the instance of third parties, in spite of opposition by a large section of women worshippers, is anomalous, the petition said. A review plea by the Chetna Conscience of Women has argued that a Pandora’s box would be opened if a constitutional court began entertaining petitions which purely pertain to faith, customs, practices and beliefs. Meanwhile, a separate petition filed by the Akhila Bharatheeya Ayyappa Dharma Prachara Sabha, has asked the apex court to direct the Kerala government and the Travancore Devaswom Board to bar “non-Hindu” women from trekking up the hill to the Sabarimala temple. The Sabha, represented by advocate V. Usha Nandini, said action should be taken against “erring officials” from using the state machinery to create communal disharmony by promoting non-Hindu women to trek up the hill to the temple.
