New Delhi/Nagpur: Lashing out at Sabarimala temple authorities, the Supreme Court on Monday questioned the ban on entry of menstruating women in the temple. The apex court asked whether any tradition can override the constitutional provisions. “What is the basis on which women have been denied entry into temples. Anyone can worship god, he is omnipresent,” the court observed.
This is not the first time that the SC has questioned the ban. In January, too, the court had said that unless it’s a constitutional right, entry of women cannot be prohibited from the Sabarimala temple.
The temple has a tradition of only allowing girls before they attain puberty and women above the age of 50 who are menopausal. Women between the age of 10 and 50 are banned from entering because the temple believes women who menstruate are impure and must not be given access to the hilltop shrine.
The rule was introduced by the Travancore Devasom Board that maintains the temple.
In 2015, the head of the temple’s board stated that women would be able to access the temple only after a body scanner is created to determine which women were pure enough to make the cut.
