Kerala High Court overrules relaxing of Padmanabha Swamy temple dress code

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday overturned the Padmanabha Swamy Temple executive officer K.N. Satheesh’s decision to allow women wearing churidar to worship at the temple. The court ordered that the tradition for women while entering Padmanabha Swami Temple be continued. A division bench held that the tradition should necessarily be continued for the time being. The court also considered the opinion of N.P. Parameswaran Namboothripad, who is the Tantri of the temple. The HC observed that there is an administrative committee appointed by the Supreme Court which in charge of the affairs of the temple.

It is headed by District Judge Thiruvananthapuram. That committee had decided on November 26 that the age old tradition cannot be changed without wider consultation. The court also considered the contentions of the petitioners that the executive officer had no right to make changes in the tradition as he is only an employee.   The petitions were filed against the decision of executive officer of the temple which allowed women to wear churidar inside the temple.

The petitioners are Rani V. Nair of Thiruvananthapuram and Venkataraa Iyer also from  Thiruvananthapuram and two others.  A section devotees protested against the decision of the executive officer (EO) K.N. Sateesh, allowing women to enter the temple wearing salwar and churidar and offer prayers. Women devotees earlier had to wear a ‘mundu’ (dhoti) over their waist if they wore salwar and churidar before entering the shrine. The petitioners alleged that the decision to allow churidar was against the temple’s centuries-old tradition.