New Delhi: Activist Bindhu Ammini, one of the two women who visited the Sabarimala temple last year, on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking safe passage for all women to visit the shrine regardless of age or religion.
In her petition, Ammini has said that the Supreme Court, while deciding to review its 2018 judgment allowing women of all ages to enter the temple had not ordered any stay, and hence, Kerala government must give protection to all women trekking to Sabarimala.
Ammini, along with another woman named Kanaka Durga, had entered the hill shrine on January 2 this year post the Supreme Court order in September 2018 allowing women of menstruating ages to offer prayers in the temple. The women were escorted by the police.
However, the Kerala government has changed its stance on facilitating women entry considerably since the Supreme Court on November 14 decided that a larger seven-judge bench should decide the matter, along with issues of other faiths such as Muslim women’s entry to mosques and cases female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.
Despite the top court not ordering a stay, the Kerala Police has said it will not give protection to any woman unless the court asks them to.
She was also attacked with chili powder on November 26 while she was on her way to the shrine along with Pune-based activist Trupti Desai.
She had slammed the Kerala government for not giving police protection and shirking duty under the pretext that there was lack of clarity in the SC judgment, at a press conference on Sunday.
“There is no lack of clarity in the recent ruling. Those who have lack of clarity should seek clarity. Instead, the government is trying to escape from the responsibility. All political parties are trying to make political mileage out of the Sabarimala issue, eyeing on their respective vote banks,” she said.
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