While the Supreme Court is yet to rule judgement over the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 into the sacred Sabarimala temple in Kerala, ten women of menstruating age who wanted to offer prayers at the shrine were denied access on Saturday. As the door of the Sabarimala temple opened from 5 PM today, for the two-month-long annual pilgrimage, there has been chaos right on the first day as women from Andhra tried to enter the holy shrine. According to the sources, high tensions prevailed as the women tried to forge into the temple premises despite the temple authorities’ statement that they will not be provided with the necessary protection.
Stating that they ought to treat the matters of religious beliefs cautiously, the Supreme Court has referred the Sabarimala petition to the larger 7-judge bench. The controversy stirred up in 2018 while the Indian Young Lawyers Association filed a petition over the unofficial ban on the entry of women into the Ayyappa shrine in Kerala.
