Sabarimala: The Apex Court on Monday questioned the Sabarimala Temple’s 1500-year-old tradition of banning entry for women in the premises. Recently, Sabarimala Temple Board’s controversial decision to install machines to test menstruating women had sparked outrage over social networking sites.

The famous temple of Kerala has been told by the SC that women cannot be banned from entering the premises unless it has constitutional rights.

“The temple cannot prohibit entry (women), except on the basis of religion. Unless you have a constitutional right, you cannot prohibit entry. Anyway, we will examine it on February 8,” a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and NV Ramana said hearing a PIL, filed by the Young Lawyers Association, seeking entry for all women and girls in the Sabarimala temple which, as a practice, does not allow girls after attaining puberty to enter the premises.

The Court maintained that since it was a public temple, everyone had the right to access the same.

Senior advocate KK Venugopal, appearing for Kerala, said that any devotee wanting to visit the temple has to maintain 41 days of purity rituals, which women who have not attained menopause, cannot maintain. Post menopausal women are allowed into the temple.

The SC further asked the Kerala government to submit an affidavit in the matter. The next hearing regarding this issue is on February 8.

Situated on the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 914 metres above sea-level, Sabarimala temple is four kilometres uphill from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district, which is around 100 km from Thiruvananthapuram.

Till a few years back, it was open only for two months – from mid-November to mid-January – but now is kept open for five days every month and as a result, the number of pilgrims has risen dramatically.