Thiruvananthapuram: The onus is now on the state unit of the National Democratic Alliance to follow up on its repeated assurances to press the Centre to bring an ordinance to override the top court’s verdict permitting young women’s entry at Sabarimala.
At the height of the Sabarimala agitation and during electioneering, BJP leaders from state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai to Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the faithful that the NDA government would protect the centuries-old beliefs of devotees.
Mr Modi was blunt during his campaign in Tamil Nadu, where he alleged that the Communists were using brute force to strike at the roots of faith and expression. “Sadly for them, as long as the BJP is there, nobody will be able to destroy our faith and culture,” he had said.
Mr Pillai had promised to press the Centre, once the BJP was back in power, to take recourse to the ordinance route to restore the status quo at Sabarimala.
Mr M. Rajagopalan Nair, who assists Kerala Government in the Sabrimala case at top court, told DC that the LDF Government never had any option since it was committed to implementing the court verdict, whether it was for or against young women entry.
He expected the five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, to pronounce its verdict on the review petition within two weeks of the SC meeting after vacation, which ends in June last week.
The LDF Government remains ideologically committed to gender justice and equality but had suggested to the court to get the Sabarimala entry issue evaluated by a committee of experts with deep knowledge of temple customs and traditions, non-partisan members and those with unblemished track record. The outcome of that exercise would help convince the general public of the soundness of the final outcome of the court deliberations.
But Chief Justice Dipak Misra disposed of the prayer, saying the court was primarily concerned with the sanctity of Constitutional principles whatever be the outcome of the study by the expert committee, Mr Nair pointed out.
Mr Nair expected a speaking order from the top court in July since it had given opportunities to all parties to ventilate their points during hearings on the review petition.
