A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court examined petitions on discrimination against women at religious sites, including Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. Justice B.V. Nagarathna observed that a woman cannot be treated as untouchable for three days and acceptable the next.
While a nine-judge bench heard petitions concerning discrimination against women at religious sites including Kerala’s Sabarimala temple and examined the limits of religious freedom across faiths, Supreme Court judge B.V. Nagarathna observed on that a woman cannot be treated as untouchable for three days in a month and then cease to be considered untouchable on the fourth day.
The constitution bench included Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices B.V. Nagarathna, M.M. Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B. Varale, R. Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi.
During the proceedings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, objected strongly to a 2018 Sabarimala judgment remark that excluding women aged 10–50 from the temple amounted to untouchability in violation of Article 17.
In that earlier ruling, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had stated that barring women based on age or menstrual status from entering the Sabarimala shrine constituted a form of untouchability that imposed a subordinate status, reinforced patriarchy and was derogatory to their dignity.
Mehta argued,
“India is not that patriarchal or gender stereotyped in the way that the West understands.”
Responding, Justice Nagarathna said,
“Article 17 in the context of Sabarimala, I don’t know how it can be argued. Speaking as a woman, there can’t be a three-day untouchability every month, and on the fourth day, there is no untouchability.”
Mehta clarified that his submission did not concern menstruation, asserting that the Sabarimala restriction relates to a specific age bracket rather than menstrual status.
He noted that Lord Ayyappa temples nationwide and abroad generally permit women of all ages, and that the limitation applies to only this particular temple, which he described as sui generis.
In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench, by a 4–1 majority, overturned the prohibition that barred women aged 10–50 from entering the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, ruling the practice unconstitutional.
Earlier, On November 14, 2019, a different five-judge bench led by then–CJI Ranjan Gogoi, by a 3–2 majority, referred broader questions about discrimination against women at places of worship to a larger bench, observing that these wide-ranging issues of religious freedom could not be resolved without the factual context of particular cases.
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