The SC referred to a five-judge Constitution bench to ban the entry of women at Kerala’s Sabarimala temple.

The Supreme Court on Friday mentioned a five-judge Constitution bench the matter concerning a ban on the entry of ladies at Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. A bench comprising chief justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan passed the order.

A petition was filed with the Supreme Court by the Indian Young Lawyers Association difficult the custom of the temple to bar entry of ladies within the 10-50 age bracket (of menstruating age), saying it had been discriminatory. The Kerala



high court had upheld the custom in 1991.

In February this year, the Supreme Court reserved its order within the matter and asked the involved parties to file a written submission that should fall into the Constitutional framework.

In Kerala, the state’s LDF government had in 2007 favored the entry of all age teams of ladies into the shrine, however, the UDF government later opposed this. The LDF, that came back to power in 2016, has returned to its previous stand favoring entry.