NEW DELHI: Favouring opening of the doors of Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple to women of all ages, the Kerala government told Supreme Court on Wednesday that the practice of barring women in 10-50 years age group had no constitutional protection as the temple devotees do not qualify as a distinct religious denomination.

Counsel for state government, senior advocate Joydeep Gupta, told a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra all other religious practices and rituals of the Sabarimala Temple could remain in tact but the restriction on entry of women of a certain age group is ex-facie unconstitutional and must be struck down.

The bench reserved its verdict after completion of arguments by all sides.

The LDF government had in 2008 taken an identical stand before SC and said any kind of restrictions on women's entry into the temple would be discriminatory and must be discontinued. But the UDF government led by Congress's Oomen Chandy had filed an affidavit in 2016 making a U-turn to argue that it was duty-bound to protect the centuries-old tradition banning entry of women in the 10-50 year bracket into the temple.

The LDF government also dismissed the argument that the celibate character of the deity at Sabarimala dictated the custom of barring entry of young women.

