Gender at the Cross Roads of Freedom of Religion: Examining the Sabarimala Judgment and Beyond

Presenter:

---

Abstract

The Indian judiciary’s attempt to strike a balance between protecting core religious practices and beliefs with liberal ideas of sex equality and civil rights is best represented by the Sabarimala judgment’s chequered history. The majority judgment of the supreme court of India, delivered in September 2018, struck down the practice of barring entry of women in the menstrual age of 10-50 into the temple as unconstitutional. It declared the practice to be violative of the right to life with dignity, equality and non-discrimination, as well as freedom of religion of women, guaranteed by the Indian constitution. In November 2019, the supreme court passed an order on petitions that sought a review of the 2018 judgment. The order did not refer to the correctness of the 2018 judgment (errors apparent on the face of the record, as is usually the ground for allowing a review petition); nor did the order stay the 2018 judgment. Strangely, it referred some “questions” to a larger (seven judge) bench of the supreme court that is yet to be constituted, based on issues that may arise in other cases pending before the court, that raise a similar issue. Subsequent to the review order, women who attempted to enter and pray at the temple were prevented from doing so. In December 2019, they petitioned the supreme court for enforcement of its own judgment, but the court refused to pass any orders, referring to the “age old practice going on for thousands of years” and that it was an “emotive issue”. …