Sabarimala temple belongs to all, says HC

TRIVANDRUM: The Kerala High Court (HC) on Monday observed that Sabarimala temple belongs to all and not just Hindus and devotees from other faiths could not be barred from entering there.

The High Court, which examined footage of the police crackdown on protesters also wanted disciplinary action against the oficers who acted “disproportionately” and sought a report on it.

Admitting a petition by a leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against welcoming people from all faiths, the court described it as a symbol of communal harmony.

The hill shrine which the devotees believe as the abode their bachelor god, Ayyappa, is in the eye of a storm after the Supreme Court last month opened its gates for women of menstruating age.

The BJP and many other Hindu groups are now on the warpath against it, and they allowed no women between 10 and 50 to worship there when it was open for the ive-day monthly prayers on Oct.17.

The principal opposition Congress party and its allies, including the Indian Union Muslim League, are also against allowing women of all ages at Sabarimala against popular sentiments of the believers.

The petitioner TG Mohandas, Convenor of the BJP’S intellectual cell in Kerala, argued that non-hindus and non-idol worshippers could not be permitted entry by the apex court judgment.

The court decided to take up petition after two weeks and sought the response of the state government and Devaswom Board, the state-controlled administrators of temples in southern Kerala.

The division bench of Justice PR Ramachandra Menon and Justice Devan Ramachandran observed that the tone and tenor of the petition were tending to disrupt the secular fabric of society.

“Even persons without irumudikettu (the mandatory offering of coconut, camphor, incense stick, raw rice and lowers) could have darshan. The irumudikettu was necessary only to enter the temple through the 18 sacred steps,” it remarked.

The petitioner argued that the police were trying to prove some points to their credit and to hurt the religious sentiments of devotees of Ayyappa by escorting non-hindu women to the temple.

“The persons who were escorted to Sabarimala by the police included nonhindus and with disorderly behaviour who fall within the purview of Rule 3(d),” the petition read.