Is tradition above Constitution? SC on women entering Sabarimala

NEW DELHI: "Can you deny a woman her right to climb Mount Everest?", the Supreme Court asked on Monday.In using the Everest example, the top court was underscoring the point that the constitution, not custom, should govern what is banned and what is not, anywhere, including in temples.The court added that the constitution - not custom - will be its guiding principle when it decides on whether women must be allowed into the Sabarimala temple.The court was hearing a petition - filed by the Indian Young Lawyers' Association (IYLA) - on allowing women into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala."We will now only be guided by the rationale under the Constitution. The gravity of this petition is that gender justice is endangered," a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said."The reasons banning anything must be common for all and on the bedrock of the Constitution," the three-judge bench, also comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph, said.During the course of a two-hour-long hearing, the court asked the counsel supporting the ban, about the constitutional principles behind the Sabarimala temple board prohibiting women from entering the temple."We will like to understand as to what right they have to forbid a woman from entering the temple, a public place," the bench said.The Justices looked unimpressed with the counsel's arguments that the practice has been observed for centuries and much before the Constitution came into being.The bench said it would examine whether a public religious place can issue such a ban and "whether such a prohibition is permissible under the Constitution".Custom cannot override constitutional values, it said."Anyone can worship the god or goddess structured into idols. I believe in god and want to bow my head, can you say, don't come," it asked the counsel representing Sabarimala's Devaswom Board.Late last week, the Shani Shingnapur trust broke 400 years of tradition - under pressure from the Bombay high court order and equal rights activists - and announced that both men and women will be allowed to enter the inner sanctum.The Supreme Court's observations are in sharp contrast with what one Hindu leader said on Monday.Incidents of rape will increase if women are allowed into the inner sanctum of the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra, said the Shankaracharya of Dwaraka-Sharda Peeth Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati on Monday.