Can't exclude women from any walk of life: Counsel
Exclusion of women was not essential to Hindu religion, submitted the counsel.
New Delhi: Senior counsel Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the Kerala government, said essential practice of an individual temple cannot be regarded as essential practice of a religion.
Exclusion of women was not essential to Hindu religion, submitted the counsel. He said social tension or disturbance of peace cannot be a ground to overturn the judgment and Kerala is committed to implement it.
The Travancore Devaswom Board, which earlier strongly opposed any interference with religious rights, changed its stand following the appointment of new Chairman for the Board.
When Justice Indu Malhotra asked senior counsel Rakesh Diwedi whether there is any change of stand by the Board, Mr Diwedi said the Board has taken a decision to respect the judgement and follow it.
He said the judgement of September 28, 2018 seeks to bring an important change in society. He said women could not be excluded from any walk of life, including entry into a public temple.
Earlier senior counsel K. Parasaran appearing for Nair Service Society argued that unless the custom or religious right is so obnoxious, court cannot interfere with such rights. He said the character of the deity as an incarnation of God at the time of ‘pratishta’ is a ‘naisthik Brahmachari’ and this character cannot be changed. He said “the deity will neither see women in the age group of 10 to 50, nor women will see the deity.”
He submitted that the judgment erroneously im-ported the concept of “un-touchability” under Art-icle 17 of the Constitution to the situation of Saba-rimala temple, without understanding its historical context Mr. Parasa-ran said “the exclusion is a general one and women are not excluded because they belonged to SC.”