The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) which administers the Sabarimala Temple on Wednesday decided not to file review petition against the Supreme Court order lifting the ban on women of menstruating age from entering the shrine, saying it has “no relevance now”.
The Travancore Devaswom Board’s decision not to file a review petition came a day after the Supreme Court listed for hearing 19 such pleas for hearing on November 13. The TDB also resolved not to file a report in the Supreme Court on the situation that prevailed at the shrine and the surrounding areas in the aftermath of its order.
The Board said that it was not prepared for any compromise as regards ancient rituals and traditions of the Ayyappa temple.
Speaking to reporters at Pandalam, royal family representative Sasikumar Varma rejected the Kerala Government’s contention that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) was the custodian of the temple.
“We have never asked to close down the temple. We are not prepared for any compromise on customs and traditions,” Varma said.
Meanwhile, four young women devotees has approached the Kerala High Court seeking a direction to the state government to provide them security so they could offer prayers at the temple. The Division Bench will hear the plea on Monday.
The Kerala police on Wednesday launched massive search operations for 210 people it suspects of being involved in last week's violence at Sabarimala, Pamba and Nilakkal that was aimed at preventing the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple. Lookout notices have been issued for all these 210 individuals.
The Pathanamthitta district has used video grabs of last week's protests to get the mugshots of all the suspects and prepared an album titled "List of suspects to be identified in various cases relating to the entry of women at Sabarimala". The album has been sent to police chiefs of all the districts in Kerala.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called the protests a "planned" and "deliberate" attempt to create an atmosphere of tension in Kerala and asserted that no force will be allowed to turn the shrine complex into a centre for trouble-makers.
He has blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for the violence.
"Kerala government made it clear in front of the Supreme Court that it will implement the verdict. The government arranged all facilities. Neither government nor the police tried to block the devotees. RSS workers tried to make the Sabarimala temple a war zone," he said on Tuesday.
Kerala has been witnessing protests against the entry of girls and women of menstrual age into Sabarimala temple since the government had said it would abide by the ruling of the apex court.
The agitation intensified since the shrine was opened for the five-day monthly pooja on October 17. The Sabarimala temple closed down for the month on Monday with not a single woman being able to visit the shrine due to the protests that followed the Supreme Court's verdict overturning the ban on the entry of women of a menstrual age.
On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra in a 4:1 judgment had lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine.
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