Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Law Minister A K Balan on Sunday said there was a "de facto" stay of the Supreme Court's September 28, 2018 order on Sabarimala women's entry issue and the state government could act only on the basis of the court's verdict.
Amid tight security, thousands of devotees offered prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple when it opened for the annual two-month-long Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage on Saturday, though police said 10 women were sent back from Pamba base as they were in the "barred" age group.
The five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on November 14 in a 3:2 verdict decided to refer the issue to a larger bench to re-examine religious issues including those arising out of its 2018 verdict lifting a centuries-old ban on women of menstruating age visiting the hill top shrine.
"In this case, a constitutional government can act only according to the orders of the court. Now we have a new problem. The question was whether the verdict of November 14 stayed the earlier order. De jure there is no stay.... but de facto there is a stay. The 2018 order has been stayed in effect even though it was not officially mentioned," Balan told reporters.
'De jure' means existing or holding a specified position by legal right while 'de facto' means existing or holding a specified position in fact but not necessarily by legal right.
Though the apex court did not stay its September 2018 order allowing entry of women into the Lord Ayyappa temple, the LDF government in Kerala this time said the shrine is not a ground for activism and made it clear it would not encourage women who want to visit the temple for publicity.
The state and temple precincts had witnessed protests by right wing outfits and BJP workers last year after the LDF government had decided to implement the Supreme Court's 2018 verdict allowing women of all age groups to offer prayers at the shrine.
The apex court said the seven-judge bench will look into pending questions similar to Sabarimala, related to Muslim women's rights to enter a mosque and permission to Parsi women who marry outside the community to enter its fire temple and the practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.
Facilities for devotees reviewed
A high-level meeting of the officials at Sabarimala was held on Sunday during which various issues relating to the facilities arranged for devotees for the annual two-month-long pilgrimage season were discussed.
Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran, who chaired the meeting at Sannidhanam area, assessed the flow of crowd and the facilities put in place.
He said the issues of fund crunch were resolved after the government released Rs 30 crore of the Rs 100 crore allotted for the hilltop shrine.
Police officials stationed at Pamba told PTI that till Sunday morning, around 28,540 devotees had climbed the hill.
Even though the TDB officials have claimed all the facilities are in place, police officials at Pamba are not satisfied with the telecom authorities.
Calls to the control room telephone number at Pamba went unanswered till 3 p.m.
"The telecom authorities could have given connection even before the season started on November 16. They are yet to fix the lines to the control room," a police official stationed at Pamba said.
Vehicle access
Small vehicles will be allowed to drop passengers till Pamba and the KSRTC bus stand will adopt a queue system and a conductor will be appointed in the bus from Nilackal to Pamba.
During the last season, private vehicles were allowed only till Nilackal which is around 18 kms from Pamba, due to the frenzied protests by a section of devotees and the right-wing political parties.
The KSRTC buses used to ply devotees from Nilackal to Pamaba and back.
"The vehicles will soon be able to drop devotees at Pamba and go back to Nilackal for parking," an official said.
The Devaswom board, which manages temples in the state, has made elaborate arrangements to provide all possible amenities to devotees.
The unprecedented floods in August last year had played havoc with the pilgrimage season with most of the facilities for the devotees being destroyed.
(With inputs from PTI)
