The trust of the Trimbakeshwar temple has, in a meeting on Sunday, decided that no one – men or women – would be allowed entry to the inner sanctum there apart from three designated people. This is being seen as a move to circumvent a Bombay High Court order that says that women should get equal access as men to temples in the state.

The temple trust's decision comes in the backdrop of drama that unfolded at the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district on Friday, when hostile villagers and the police prevented a group of women from entering the inner sanctum there. Both the Trimbakeshwar and Shani Shingnapur temples have the same policy of not allowing women entry to the temple's core area, with locals supporting that ban.

The only three people, according to the trust's decision, now allowed to enter the Trimbakeshwar temple's inner sanctum are the priest who performs the puja there, a member of the Tungar family responsible for cleaning the temple and a pradosh pujak who performs the special puja for each day.

The trust, though, has said that it has taken this decision in order to avoid 'possible rush and accidents'. The resolution concerned, it added, was tabled and passed under special provisions granted by the Supreme Court to the trust to decide on matters of day-to-day functioning.

Speaking about the weight of law behind the trust's decision, advocate Ajay Toshniwal said that as far as the move to ban the entry of both men and women is concerned, it can be considered within the ambit of the law as it maintains gender equality.

But local purohits, who were earlier opposed to the entry of women to the temple's inner sanctum, have now made a U-turn, saying that the trust's decision is 'unfortunate' as it breaks an age-old tradition.