On Tuesday, a 10-year-old girl’s plea for permitting her to go on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala was dismissed by the Division Bench of Kerala High Court over the reasons that the matter of entry of women aged between 10 and 50 years was still being dealt with by the Larger Bench of Apex Court.
While denying relief to the Karnataka-based ten-year-old petitioner, Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice Harisankar V. Menon opined that because there is yet a larger Bench in charge of reviewing petitions before it concerning questions arising from freedom of religion under Articles 25 and 26 vis-à-vis provisions in Part III, particularly Article 14, and related subjects under review, invoking the writ jurisdiction of Article 226 as sought for by petitioner is inappropriate.
When this petition came up for hearing, the Travancore Devaswom Board raised an objection about it saying that since the crux of this matter is pending consideration before a larger bench which is reframed issues it would be improper on part of board to comment either way. The TDB submitted that till such time as it is definitely determined by the Apex Court, what stand should be taken.
