3-Feb-2020: Rituals vital to Sabarimala temple’s essential practices.

The constitution bench, led by the Chief Justice of India, will be framing issues on a series of petitions, concerning the contradictions between the equal right of women to worship and the right to religious practices. These petitions concern multiple faiths and this would also include the issue of Sabarimala temple’s prohibition of women of menstruating age.

Arguments against state intervention:

• Right to religious practices and beliefs: The right to religious practices and beliefs cannot be made subservient to the right to equality. The concept of “constitutional morality” cannot be used to override religious practices in a society where religion plays a substantial role.
• Essential practices: Rituals, ceremonies, observances, and sacrifices performed by devotees are integral components of the essential practices associated with the temple. Devotees demonstrate their devotion and reverence to the disposition of Lord Shree Ayyappa as a Naishtika Brahmachari by strictly adhering to codes that have been in practice from time immemorial.
• Applicability of Article 14: Codes, which are non-secular, cannot be subjected to the test of Article 14, which talks about the right to equality.
• Institutional morality: People intending to worship at the temple have to subscribe to its “institutional morality”. A person who does not subscribe to the code has no locus standi to call into question the essential practices and customs of the temple.
• The character of the temple: Though the temple in question is of a public character, its essential character is of an unincorporated family temple. Notably, the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965, does not govern the temple.
• The members of the donor family who consist of the Pandalam royal family, have a right and duty to protect the temple’s age-old rituals.