'Each deity has peculiar rituals': Sabarimala priest tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: The main priest of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, whose custom of barring entry of menstruating women was struck down in 2018, on Friday told Supreme Court that the rights and wrongs of modes of idol worship, which is central to Hinduism, is judicially indeterminable when rituals are peculiar to each deity’s manifestation, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra.

Appearing for the ‘thantri’, senior advocate V Giri told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanulla, Aravind Kumar, A G Masih, P B Varale, R Mahadevan and J Bagchi that a person who challenges a particular mode of worship, ritual or custom peculiar to a deity is not a worshipper and, hence, courts should not entertain his petition challenging a ritual, unless that militates against public order, morality or health.

“Every Hindu deity has characteristics of its own. The rituals and ceremonies followed in a temple would be either unique or at least peculiar to the temples which come under the same category. Rituals are always associated with the concept of the deity,” he said.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan said the state’s right to enact laws to eradicate social evils and usher in reforms could not be extended to reform a religion, faith or belief.




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