Periyar (Kerala): In a landmark resolution, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) on Monday decided to challenge the 2018 Supreme Court verdict permitting women of menstruating age to worship at the Sabarimala temple.
Based on the resolution, TDB will file an affidavit with the Supreme Court when the top court reviews the September 28, 2018 order. Following the 2018 verdict, the matter was referred to a larger bench in 2019, and the legal battle regarding the review petitions is ongoing.
TDB president K Jayakumar said at a press conference that the board’s
position was not anything new.
“The Board was constituted (in 1949 under the Covenant for the Formation of the United States of Travancore and Cochin) to protect temple traditions (under the provisions of the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act XV of 1950),” he said.
Earlier Board leaderships had opposed women’s entry in principle into the Lord Ayyappa temple, but a resolution to that effect was never adopted, added Jayakumar.
“It’s the TDB’s default legal position. Protecting temple traditions is core to the TDB’s constitution,” he said.
“The board has no difference of opinion on this. The TDB is constituted under rules that mandate the protection of the temple and its traditions. So we will contest the decision of the Supreme Court,” he said.
Jayakumar added that the state’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) government may take its own position, but the TDB is bound by its statutory duty to protect temple traditions.