File Picture Courtesy : Hindustan Times
In a major ruling by the Supreme Court has observed why there is discrimination done while offering prayers at Sabrimala temple. If men are allowed to pray, it is also pertinent to allow the women the same . If denied it would really unfair and unjust.
The Supreme Court has said that a woman’s right to pray is equal to that of a man as enshrined in the Constitution and forming a law cannot negate that. The apex court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the ban on entry of women in Kerala’s Sabarimala temple on grounds of biological factors.
“On what basis you (temple authorities) deny the entry. It is against the Constitutional mandate. Once you open it for public, anybody can go,” Chief Justice Dipak Misra said.
He said that if the temple has allowed men to enter, then it must allow women to enter too. “There is no concept of a private temple. If there is a temple then it is a public place and everyone is allowed to go there. If men can go there then women can also go,” he said during the hearing.
The CJI also opposed the Kerala government’s assertion that ceremonial rules pertaining to temples and method of worship are set by the temple and are protected under the right to worship, saying that a “temple cannot claim denominational rights.”
“Your right to worship as a woman at par with a man is not dependent on a legislation. It’s there in the Constitution. It’s there in article 25(1). Law facilitates equal right of worship by everyone,” he said.
Justice DY Chandrachud, who was part of the five-judge constitutional bench that was hearing the case, further said, “Every woman is also the creation of God and why should there be discrimination against them in employment or worship.”
