india

Updated: Sep 05, 2019 10:10 IST

In his parting speech outgoing Kerala governor Justice P Sathasivam on Wednesday justified the state government’s position on Sabarimala temple saying it was duty-bound to implement the apex court verdict which allowed women of all ages to enter the shrine.

“I feel the state government was bound to go by the verdict. If anybody has some grievances they should have approached the court,” said the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, adding that the governor’s intervention was needed only when constitutional machinery failed in the state. He said a healthy relation must prevail between the governor and the state government.

Hailing from a framers’ family in Erode in Tamil Nadu, Sathasivam said he will go back to his farms after retirement. A popular governor, he never refused an appointment to anyone who came with a grievance.

But state BJP leaders were quite critical about his silence over the Sabarimala stir. Kerala had witnessed violent agitation when the state government tried to implement the September 28 verdict of the Supreme Court which lifted the bar on women in 10-50 age- group from entering the Sabarimala temple.

At one point police had registered cases against more than 60,000 people and Kerala witnessed at least five shut downs. BJP leaders had approached Sathasivam a number of times to put the government in the dock but he refused to toe their line.

Sathasivam was the first Supreme Court Chief justice to assume the governor’s post. Last week, the Union government had appointed former civil aviation minister Arif Mohamad Khan as the new governor of Kerala. The state government has organized a farewell meet to the outgoing governor. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lauded him saying he upheld democratic and secular values during his five-year tenure. “He stood with us when we faced many tragedies. Steps taken by him to encourage social justice and gender equality are a model to the country,” Vijayan said.