‘Woman can’t be treated as untouchable for 3 days’

New Delhi: A woman cannot be treated as “untouchable” for three days in a month and then cease to be considered untouchable on the fourth day, Supreme Court judge BV Nagarathna remarked on Tuesday.

The remark came while a nine-judge bench was hearing on petitions related to discrimination against women at religious places, including Sabarimala temple of Keralam, and on the ambit and scope of religious freedom practised by multiple faiths.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, submitted that he has strong objection to an observation in the 2018 Sabarimala judgment that the exclusion of women in the age group of 10-50 years from the temple was a form of ‘untouchability’, violating Article 17 of the Constitution.

In the Sabarimala case, Justice DY Chandrachud was of the opinion that exclusion of women, based on age or menstrual status, from entering Kerala’s Sabarimala temple is a form of “untouchability” which places them in a “subordinate” position, perpetuated “patriarchy” and is “derogatory to their dignity.

Mehta said, “India is not that patriarchal or gender stereotyped in the way that the West understands.”

Justice Nagarathna, then said, “Article 17 in the context of Sabarimala, I don’t know how it can be argued. Speaking as a woman, there can’t be a three-day untouchability every month, and on the fourth day, there is no untouchability.”

Mehta stated that he was not on the issue of menstruation.

He said the bar on women entry in Sabarimala temple was not related to menstruation, and said the restriction was only on the basis of age group.