Private member bill on Sabarimala introduced in LS; Devaswom Board asks for ordinance

New Delhi, June 21: A Private Member's Bill seeking a ban on the entry of women aged 10-40 years in the Sabarimala temple was tabled in Lok Sabha on Friday.

Revolutionary Socialist Party's Member of Parliament NK Premachandran introduced the bill to restore the status quo of the practices of Sabarimala temple in Kerala as existed on September 1, 2018.

The Supreme Court, on September 28 last year, declared a Kerala government law barring women aged between 10 and 40 years from entering the Sabarimala temple unconstitutional. The Supreme Court judgment threw the Sabarimala temple open for women on all age groups.

Meanwhile, the state's Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has called on the Centre to pass a law that would protect the traditions at Sabarimala, which bars the entry of women of menstruating age.

"If customs and traditions can be protected by law, it is good. It is not appropriate to drag devotees to the streets... Centre should take immediate action to make a law. If that takes time, then an ordinance should be brought, based on which the government can function or proceed further," Surendran said, according to news agency ANI.

His remarks came against the backdrop of a reported attempt by NK Premachandran, the Congress-allied MP from Kollam, to introduce a private member's bill in the Lok Sabha to preserve the tradition of barring the entry of women of menstruating age.