A year after the Supreme Court allowed women of menstruating ages to enter Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple in Kerala's Pathanamthitta, one of the judges revealed that he had received vile threats on social media.
Justice D Y Chandrachud, who was part of the five-member Constitution Bench that delivered the judgement, said his staff had urged him not to use social media after September 28. “After the judgement, my law clerks and interns told me not to use social media. They told me: 'Please don’t use social media. It’s scary. The amount of vile threats, abuse which you have received, it is scary’. They said they haven’t slept because they feared for the safety of the judges," said Chandrachud at an event in Mumbai recently, reported Economic Times.
Many hailed the judgement, delivered on September 28, 2018, as landmark as they thought it would ensure gender equality.
The verdict was passed with the approval of four judges – former Chief Justice Dipak Mishra, Justice DY Chandrachud, AM Khanwilkar and Rohintan Nariman – while the lone woman in the bench Justice Indu Malhotra had opposed it.
Right-wing Hindutva organisations had initially supported the verdict, but they changed tack when they realised that the issue will help them reap political dividends after Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front government asserted its commitment to implement the verdict.
This stern stand appeared to have cost the LDF dear in the Lok Sabha election in May this year.
Chandrachud said he stood by his verdict. “The practice of keeping out women was tantamount to untouchability, and a travesty to their constitutional rights which guarantee the right to freedom of worship,” ET quoted him as saying.
Two women, Bindu, 44, and Kanakadurga,44, had entered the hill shrine on January 2, 2019 – three months after the verdict.
