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“Devotion cannot be subjected to gender discrimination,” declared the Supreme Court of India as they delivered their judgement on the entry of women in Sabarimala Temple. With a 4:1 majority, what came as a surprise is that the only member of the bench to dissent was its only female member — Justice Indu Malhotra. The judgement was passed on September 28, 2018, a day after the decriminalisation of adultery by the Supreme Court.
The Sabarimala complex is located at the Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala. It is a major centre of pilgrimage in India with Sree Dharmasastha Temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa as its most popular attraction. Till the passing of the above-mentioned judgement, the temple barred women aged between 10 and 50 from entering Ayappa’s shrine.
“Woman is not lesser or inferior to man. Patriarchy of religion cannot be permitted to trump over faith. Biological or physiological reasons cannot be accepted in freedom for faith. Religion is basically [a] way of life however certain practices create incongruities,” said Chief Justice Dipak Misra while reading out the his and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar’s joint statement. “The law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. The country has not accepted women as partners in seeking divinity. Subversion of women on biological factors cannot be given legitimacy. Certain dogmas have resulted in incongruity between doctrine and practice,” added Misra.
Justice Rohinton Nariman concurred as he said “Dignity of individual is an unwavering nature of fundamental rights. Any relationship with the creator is a transcendental one, cannot be circumscribed by biological factors.” While Justice D.Y. Chandrachud emphasised in how denial of rights on the grounds of physiological features is a breach of Article 25 of the Indian constitution that gives every citizen the “freedom of practice and propagation of religion.” Justice Malhotra seemed to disagree as she stated, “The Sabarimala shrine and deity is protected by Article 25 of Constitution of India. Notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion.”
The bench was set up in October 2017 following a petition filed by The Indian Young Lawyers Association challenging the ban on entry of women into the temple. The petition was filed in 2006, but was only acted upon a decade later in January, 2016.
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