#Sabarimala Temple Entry Case: Bar On Women Not Based On Misogyny, says Travancore Devaswom Board

Supreme Court Justice Rohinton Nariman today observed that the bar of women’s entry into mosques will also fall within the enquiry of the hearings on allowing women enter the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple. The apex court resumed its hearing on a petition that seeks women’s entry into the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Travancore Dewaswom Board and continuing from where he left off on 19 July, pointed out that a woman not allowed to enter mosques “whether she is menstruating or not”. He said only Fatimid Bohri mosque permitted entry of women. On the other hand, the Brahma Temple at Pushkar, a Parvathy Temple in Tamil Nadu, the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram besides a Bhagavathy Temple in Kerala and another one in Bihar bar men from their premises.

But Singhvi’s argument that it is not for the Court to comment on the rationality of religious beliefs is something that could be put forth in hearings in other cases, particularly “Nikah Halala”, where Muslim women to rejoin the husband they have divorced will have to consummate a marriage with another person and divorce him.

Singhvi said the beliefs, practiced for centuries, merit protection under Article 26. He argued that if at all reform is called for, it has to come from within the community and added that several Hindu women understand and respect the tradition. “It is not a practice imposed on women by patriarchal men,” he said, adding that not all practices are based on misogyny.

Responding to Justice D Y Chandrachud’s observation that acceptance by women could be the result of social conditioning, Singhvi said it was not a case of men versus women. He said that the Court cannot project notions of male chauvinism from other cases to Sabarimala without examining evidences.

The five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices D Y Chandrachud, Rohinton F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra will continue hearing the petition demanding the entry of women into Sabarimala temple tomorrow (25 July). Women between ages of 10 and 50 are banned from entering the Temple.