Sabarimala

placed before the court that requires reconsideration. The matter is not required to be reviewed at all.”

The state government submitted that when the court had given its order on the hill shrine, it had reached a consensus on three issues: One, the Sabarimala temple is not a denominational temple; two, that a person’s right to worship in a temple is taken away together for a major part of that person’s life; and the third aspect being that the rule violated the act governing temples itself.

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which runs the historic Sabarimala temple, took a U-turn in the Supreme Court by supporting its verdict which had allowed women of reproductive age entry into the temple. It said the board supported the entry of women.

“Text and scriptures do not speak of exclusion of women or the practice,” senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who was representing TDB, said.

When j ust i c e Malhotra reminded Dwivedi that the board had earlier argued against the entry of women, he replied, “The board has decided t o respect the court’s verdict.”

“Equality is the dominant theme under the Constitution and the practice violates equal- ity. Spirit of the judgment is equal treatment to a man and woman,” Dwivedi said.

“Women can’t be excluded on the basis of biological attributes,” he added.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, who was appearing on behalf of the two women who entered the temple, said that it was not an exclusion but a social boycott. “Purification ceremony validates the argument that the practice is based on notions of untouchability,” she said.

She said that the Sabarimala temple is a public and not private temple.

“Lord Ayyappa does not discriminate between man and woman. There is no difference in the eyes of God. If my conscience dictates me to worship the Sabarimala deity, I like to know who will stop me,” Jaising said.

“If the judgment was against women, they would not have rioted. Women do not go to war,” she said.

Earlier, opening his argument for against the top court’s earlier judgment, senior advocate K Parasaran, appearing for the Nair Service Society, said, “The exclusionary practice in Sabarimala is based on the character of the deity.”

“Untouchability has nothing to do here. Entry [into Sabarimala temple] is sought to be prohibited only due to nature of deity. It is not an exclusionary practice,” said advocate V Giri, appearing for a priest.

Talking about the exclusion of women at the shrine, the Kerala government submitted, “If it’s a denominational temple only then the question of essential practice will arise.”

“The Jagannath temple is unique in its practice and yet this court has held that it’s not a denominational temple”, similarly as how Kashi Vishwanath and Tirupati temples were not, the government contended.

“This is a public temple, and because it is one, there is a Kerala Act which deals with it and says it shall be open to all Hindus of all classes of all categories without exception. It is not a private law issue but one of public law,” the Kerala government argued.

The state government said the petitioners had argued that social peace had been “destroyed”, but “this cannot be a ground for review. We know social peace will come.” elections, the Modi government will drive out every single infiltrator from the country… Infiltrators can be vote bank for the SP and BSP. It is a question of national security for the BJP,” Shah said.

The BJP president dismissed the opposition’s attempt to present a united front against the Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “The grand alliance is a farce… It won’t make any difference to the election results,” he said.

Leaders of the grand alliance like West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu are all regional leaders and they have no national influence, Shah said.

He also slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi for dismissing the assured income assistance scheme — Pm-kisan — for the farmers announced in the interim budget by the Modi government last week.

Shah said the previous Congress-led UPA government gave ₹53,000 crore to farmers as loan waiver while the Modi government announced an annual scheme of ₹75,000 crore for assured income of farmers. Gandhi had earlier said the income assistance scheme was an insult to farmers. The Modi government has offered ₹17 a day to the farmers, he said.