The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), in charge of the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala, has decided to seek expert legal opinion on further steps to be adopted in the Supreme Court on the issue of entry for women of all ages to the shrine. Senior counsel Manu Abhishek Singhvi, who had represented the TDB earlier, has reportedly expressed his inability to take up the case. A Congress leader, Singhvi is also a Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal. Following this, the TDB is also seeking a new advocate and is in talks with several lawyers in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will consider the writ pleas and review petitions regarding the case on November 13. The annual mandala pilgrimage season at Sabarimala will begin on November 16.
The TDB feels that a discussion has to take place with the lawyer before deciding whether to submit a report before the Supreme Court or resort to other measures. It hopes to settle the issue before the start of the annual pilgrimage. The TDB is also taking care to avoid lapses while presenting the case before the Supreme Court again.
The Covenant of 1949
Meanwhile, Sasikumar Varma, the Pandalam palace coordination committee president, has said that he had referred to the Covenant of 1949 to ensure that all the traditional practices related to the temple were preserved. He added that all the documents to prove the connection between the Pandalam Palace and the Sabarimala temple would be submitted before the Supreme Court. They will be presented before the media also on Wednesday, he added.
Varma’s earlier statement that the palace had the authority to close down the temple as per the Covenant had drawn flak.
Varma said even though the government used all its machinery and tried to bring women, barred by tradition, to the shrine, they could not succeed.
Taking on the Pandalam royal family and its claims that they have the rights to the temple, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said they were staking claims on things which they cannot. "The Sabarimala temple is the property of the TDB and none else have any rights over it. The Sabarimala temple ownership was handed over to the TDB after the royal family had serious financial problems.”
"Today they just conduct ritualistic activities of the temple and that they can continue to do," said Pinarayi. “The signatories of the Covenant were the Maharajas of Travancore and Kochi and V.P. Menon, who represented the Union government. The first matter the Covenant dealt with was the merger of Travancore and Kochi. The second matter was regarding the formation of TDB for controlling all temples in Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Board for the temples in Kochi,” the CM pointed out.
He further stated the Covenant had the condition that when the TDB was formed, the government had to grant it an amount of Rs 50 lakh and the Pandalam royal family was not a party in the Covenant.
On September 28, in a 4:1 split verdict, the apex court said the ban on women of child-bearing age, whose presence in the Lord Ayyappa temple was considered to be "impure", violated their fundamental rights and constitutional guarantee of equality.
Until now, only girls below 10 years and women over 50 years were allowed to visit the shrine.
