The court asked, "Is spirituality a domain of only men? Are women incapable of attaining spirituality? In the Vedas, Upanishads or scriptures there is no discrimination between men and women. This has cropped up historically," the court said.
Questioning the ban on the entry of women in Kerala's Sabarimala temple, the Supreme Court on Friday said, "If God does not discriminate between men and women and even the Hindu scriptures Vedas and Upanishads do not discriminate against them, why should the discrimination exist in temples."
The court asked, "Is spirituality a domain of only men? Are women incapable of attaining spirituality? In the Vedas, Upanishads or scriptures there is no discrimination between men and women. This has cropped up historically," the court said.
The court was hearing a petition challenging the ban on women between the age group of 10 and 50 entering the ancient temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa.
"We are not taking a narrow view. We want to strike a constitutional balance between the right to equality and the right to religious practice. The temple is a religious phenomenon and its functions must come within parameters," a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said.
The Court's observation came after temple board (Travancore Devaswom Board) lawyer KK Venugopal argued that the practice was in place for 1,000 years, so why dig it up now? "The whole of Sabarimala hill is sanctified and women can't enter," he said.
The temple claims that women who menstruate are impure and must not be given access to the hilltop shrine.
The court asked the temple board and the state government to give details on when the discrimination began at the temple and the historical reasons.
"This discrimination will be tested on the parameters of constitutional equality and right to custom and religious practices," the court said.
"Can you deprive a mother," Justice Misra asked at one point during the hearing on the tradition followed in the temple of depriving women entry.
The court also appointed senior advocate Raju ramachandran as Amicus to assist the court and fixed April 11 to hear the matter in detail.
In November, the head of the temple's board, Prayar Gopalakrishnan, created a huge controversy by stating that women would be able to access the temple after a machine is created that would function like a body scanner to determine which women were "pure" enough to make the cut.
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