Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Three petitions challenge Sabarimala ruling in SC

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 09, 2018 00:00 IST



March continues:Ayyappa devotees take out a marchin Kannur on Monday.S.K. MOHANThe Hindu 

They claim original PIL plea was filed by non-believers

Three separate petitions on Monday asked the Supreme Court to review its September 28 judgment allowing women of all ages entry into the Sabarimala temple.

Third parties

‘Reform’ does not mean rendering a religious practice out of existence on the basis of a PIL filed by “third parties” who do not believe in the Sabarimala deity, the petitions contended.

Majority verdict

A Constitution Bench of the court, in a majority of 4:1, upheld the 12-year-old PIL petition filed by Indian Young Lawyers Association challenging the prohibition of women aged between 10 and 50 from undertaking the pilgrimage.

The Bench found that a restriction on a woman solely based on her menstrual status was a smear on her individual dignity.

The court said, “treating women as the children of a lesser God is to blink at the Constitution”.

Form of untouchability

It was a “form of untouchability” abolished decades ago and the ban on women was derogatory to equal citizenship, the Supreme Court held.

But the Nair Service Society (NSS), in its review petition settled by senior advocate K. Parasaran and filed by advocate K.V. Mohan, contended that the court should take judicial notice that an “overwhelmingly large section of women worshippers are supporting the custom of prohibiting entry of females between the age of 10 and 50 years at the Sabarimala temple.”

The lifting of the prohibition at the instance of third parties, in spite of opposition by a large section of women worshippers, is anomalous, the petition said.

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