The head priest opens the sanctum sanctorum of the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. (AP Photo: Manish Swarup)
As Sabarimala shrine opened for the two-month-long pilgrim season Saturday evening at 5 pm, PTI reported that the police has sent back at least 10 women from Pamba. The women, who are aged between 10 to 50, had come from Andhra Pradesh to offer prayers at the temple. “After they reached Pamba, police checked their identity cards and found that they were in the barred age group and informed them about the current situation in Sabarimala. They did not proceed further,” the police authorities were quoted as saying.
On Friday, the state government indicated that it would not “take young women to the Sabarimala temple” due to the “grey areas” in the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case. The apex court had put a batch of review petitions on hold and referred the matter to a larger bench on Thursday.
Last year, the government had said it would implement the top court’s order, which allowed women to enter the shrine.
Last year, the government had said it would implement the top court's order, which allowed women to enter the shrine.
The doctrine of “essentiality” was invented by a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the ‘Shirur Mutt’ case in 1954. The court held that the term “religion” will cover all rituals and practices “integral” to a religion, and took upon itself the responsibility of determining the essential and non-essential practices of a religion. READ MORE
Women should allow to follow the tradition and heritage of the Sabarimala shrine, BJP Tamil Nadu general secretary Vanathi Srinivasan said Saturday. They should realise this and allow to maintain the sanctity of the temple, Vanathi told reporters here to a question on the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayyappa temple issue.
The Renaissance Protection Committee on Saturday lashed out at the Kerala government saying it had gone soft on its stand on the women's entry issue over the Sabarimala shrine and that would only help weaken the cause. General secretary of the renaissance protection committee Punnala Sreekumar told media that a progressive state like Kerala should not have shied from implementing the order and instead take forward the renaissance movement. (PTI)
According to BJP leader P P Mukundan , cases were registered against 55,650 Ayyappa devotees for participating in the protests against the alleged move by the government to violate the age-old custom of the temple. Sabarimala Karmasamithi leaders SJR Kumar and K P Sasikala have been made accused in 1,100 cases, Mukundan said in a statement here. His statement came two days after the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, with a 3:2 majority, referred Sabarimala temple case to a larger bench of seven judges. Noting that 2,200 people were put behind bars for several days for participating in the protests, Mukundan said they were granted bail on a bond of a total of Rs 3.5 crore. "They are facing cases for participating in protests to protect custom of Sabarimala temple.
Senior BJP leader P P Mukundan on Saturday urged the Kerala government to withdraw cases registered against Ayyappa devotees for participating in the protests last year against the bid to implement Supreme Court's 2018 verdict permitting entry of women in the menstrual age group into Sabarimala temple.
Senior BJP leader P P Mukundan on Saturday urged the Kerala government to withdraw cases registered against Ayyappa devotees for participating in the protests last year against the bid to implement Supreme Court's 2018 verdict permitting entry of women in the menstrual age group into Sabarimala temple. According to him, cases were registered against 55,650 Ayyappa devotees for participating in the protests against the alleged move by the government to violate the age-old custom of the temple. (PTI)
"Yesterday, the government said that they won't provide security to women, so women are going to #SabarimalaTemple without protection. Now, women are being stopped, so I think the government is working completely against women," Trupti Desai was quoted as saying.
The Supreme Court’s decision to refer the Sabarimala temple case to a larger 7-judge Bench reopens not only the debate on allowing women of menstruating age into the Ayyappa temple but the larger issue of whether any religion can bar women from entering places of worship. The larger Bench reference will also re-evaluate the “essential religious practice test”, a contentious doctrine evolved by the court to protect only such religious practices which were essential and integral to the religion. READ MORE
Priests have opened the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. Kandararu Mahesh Mohanararu opened the sanctum sanctorum of the temple at 5 pm, and performed the poojas, as hundreds of devotees from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and other neighbouring states thronged the shrine located in a reserve forest of the Western Ghats in Pathanamthitta district of the state.
ANI reported that the police has sent back at least 10 women from Pamba. The women, who are aged between 10 to 50, had come from Andhra Pradesh to offer prayers at the temple.