Apex court to review Sabarimala ruling allowing entry of women
49 pleas to be heard on January 22 as Hindu groups work to stop implementation of order
India’s top court yesterday agreed to review its ruling two months ago that removed a ban on women of menstruating age from entering a prominent Hindu temple in the southern state of Kerala, following widespread protests against the decision.
The Supreme Court will on January 22 hear all 49 petitions seeking a review of its previous decision, a lawyer directly involved in the case told reporters.
Conservative Hindu groups had prevented women from entering the Sabarimala hill temple in Kerala in recent weeks, clashing with police and damaging cars and buses. Their action was in defiance of the Supreme Court ruling that lifted a centuries-old ban on women or girls aged from 10 years to 50 from entering the temple.
In September, a five-judge bench of the top court had ruled the ban was illegal, saying it infringed ■ the right to worship.
On September 28, a five-judge constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, had paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Temple saying the ban amounted to gender discrimination.
The top court had on October 9 declined an urgent hearing on the review plea filed by an association which had contended that the five-judge Constitution bench’s verdict lifting the ban was “absolutely untenable and irrational”.
A plea filed by the National Ayyappa Devotees Association (NADA), which has sought review of the verdict, had said, “The notion that the judgement under review is revolutionary, one which removes the stigma or the concept of dirt or pollution associated with menstruation, is unfounded.”