{"id":3832,"date":"2018-12-19T15:44:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T10:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/?p=3832"},"modified":"2024-07-08T17:11:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T11:41:23","slug":"the-sabarimala-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/the-sabarimala-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sabarimala Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 id=\"E55\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span id=\"E56\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">THE SABARIMALA VERDICT: INDIAN EQUALITY OR WESTERN EQUALITY?<\/span><\/h1>\n<p id=\"E57\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"E58\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">One of the contemporary matters of discussion in the Indian legal scenario revolves ar<\/span><span id=\"E59\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">ound the recent <\/span><span id=\"E61\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">Sabarimala<\/span><span id=\"E63\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> judg<\/span><span id=\"E64\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">ment by the <\/span><span id=\"E66\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">Hon&#8217;ble<\/span><span id=\"E68\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> Supreme Court. The judgmen<\/span><span id=\"E69\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">t is primarily <\/span><span id=\"E71\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">centered<\/span><span id=\"E73\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> <\/span><span id=\"E75\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">around<\/span><span id=\"E77\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> A<\/span><span id=\"E78\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">rticle 14 of the Indian Co<\/span><span id=\"E79\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">nstitution which guarantees right<\/span><span id=\"E80\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> t<\/span><span id=\"E81\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">o equality. It is often<\/span><span id=\"E82\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> view<\/span><span id=\"E83\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">ed as a conflict point between Article 14 which guarantees Right to Equality and Article 25 which guarantees Right to Freedom of R<\/span><span id=\"E84\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">eligion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><script src=\"\/\/ws-in.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?rt=tf_ssw&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=IN&amp;ID=V20070822%2FIN%2Fsumt7-21%2F8003%2Fd3177412-3566-491f-a484-7191a132c57f&amp;Operation=GetScriptTemplate\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"> <\/script><noscript><A rel=\"nofollow\" HREF=\"\/\/ws-in.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?rt=tf_ssw&#038;ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;MarketPlace=IN&#038;ID=V20070822%2FIN%2Fsumt7-21%2F8003%2Fd3177412-3566-491f-a484-7191a132c57f&#038;Operation=NoScript\">Amazon.in Widgets<\/A><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p id=\"E86\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"E87\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">As is the case with most of the debate<\/span><span id=\"E88\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">s in India which <\/span><span id=\"E90\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">someway<\/span><span id=\"E92\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> or the other are connected to religion, this issue also garners<\/span><span id=\"E93\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> strong views from both<\/span><span id=\"E94\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> sides. A section of the s<\/span>ociety strongly welcomed this<span id=\"E97\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"><\/span><span id=\"E99\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> judgment because as a result of this judgment women of all ages(including 10 to 50) were allowed to enter the <\/span>Sabarimala temple<span id=\"E103\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">. A section of the society also opposed this judgment on the pretext that it violated the customs laid down according to that particular temple and which had been followed since time immemorial.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Also Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/ram-janambhoomi-vs-babri-masjid\/\">The Babri Masjid Case: Why there&#8217;s no solution yet?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"E105\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"E106\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">However, amidst all this discus<\/span><span id=\"E107\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">sion, the thing which is often\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"E108\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">forgotten in these contemporary <\/span><span id=\"E109\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">and often heated debates is A<\/span><span id=\"E110\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">rticle 13 of the Constitution. <strong><em>Article 13 of the Constitution also recognizes customs as a valid source of law.<\/em><\/strong> Thus, a conflict arises that if the custom is recognized as a source of law, then why <\/span><span id=\"E112\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">was it<\/span><span id=\"E114\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> not upheld in this particular case. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"E117\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">The plea which is often given is that the custom in this particular case is a discriminatory one. I <\/span><span id=\"E118\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">believe that this plea\u00a0is largely<\/span><span id=\"E119\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> based on the English notion of Rights. In the English scenario and also generally in the West<\/span><span id=\"E120\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">,<\/span><span id=\"E121\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> the concept of public right and private right is a separate one. This essentially means that the public rights enjoyed in the public in general and the private right<\/span><span id=\"E122\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">s<\/span><span id=\"E123\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> enjoyed by the individual within the four walls of his house are a completely different concept. However, when it c<\/span><span id=\"E124\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">omes to the Indian context <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">no such<\/span><\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span id=\"E125\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> dist<\/span><span id=\"E126\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">inction between public rights<\/span> and private rights is seen in practice<\/span>. Religion is not only included as a part of the private life of the individual but it is also a part of the public life. A literal Western interpretation of the idea of equality equates to being identical. This ideology and interpretation sound<span id=\"E128\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> very good for a homogeneous society like the W<\/span><span id=\"E129\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">est. However<\/span><span id=\"E130\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">,<\/span><span class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> India is anything but a homogeneous society. Thus, applying the Western interpretation of the idea of equality to the Indian context can be a dangerous proposition. As a matter of fact,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">there are various customs which are inherent to Indian scenario only. One won&#8217;t find these <\/span><span id=\"E132\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">peculiarities anywhere else in the world. <\/span><span id=\"E134\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">The same is the case with <\/span><span id=\"E136\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">Sabarimala<\/span><span id=\"E138\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">. The peculiar custom of the <\/span><span id=\"E140\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">Sabarimala<\/span><span id=\"E142\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> temple is connected to Lord <\/span><span id=\"E144\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">Ayyappan<\/span><span id=\"E146\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">. It has been uniformly and consistently followed by the devotees, including women, that there shall be no entry of women of a particular age group owing to customary beliefs. Till date, this belief was protected as a custom under Article 13 of the Constitution. However, the recent verdict has changed this position. If parallels are drawn even within the Indian context, a similar judgment was delivered by the Bombay High Court where the issue was again the entry of women. At the same time, one should be mindful of the fact that there are around 18 temples in India, where the entry of men is prohibited, the reason again being the custom peculiar to certain deities and temples. If the same logic is applied in these cases as well, then it would open up a <\/span><span id=\"E148\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">Pandora\u2019s box<\/span><span id=\"E150\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3837\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3837\" style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2GvtrIH\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3837 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Webp.net-gifmaker.gif\" alt=\"Amazon Sale Amazon Offers\" width=\"1500\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3837\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Advert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"E152\"><span id=\"E153\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">This makes me come<\/span><span id=\"E154\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> up<\/span> with two questions. The first question<span id=\"E157\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"><\/span><span id=\"E159\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> is that whether a<\/span><span id=\"E160\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> literal interpretation of the t<\/span><span id=\"E161\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">erm equality is fruitful for the Indian democracy or whether one should act on those lines where no gross injustice is caused to<\/span><span id=\"E162\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"> any particular section of the s<\/span><span id=\"E163\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">ociety? The second question which arises is that whether the Indian society has become more developed after adopting the literal Western interpretation of the idea of equality or wh<\/span><span id=\"E164\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">ether the Indian democracy and s<\/span><span id=\"E165\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">ociety was truly developed from the beginning itself?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Also Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/chhatrapati-shivaji-facts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj: Most Interesting Facts<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"E167\"><span id=\"E168\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">I would like to adhere to the second view for the first question, where the larger interests of the society and the absence of gross injustice should be given primacy <\/span><span id=\"E169\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">over the literal interpretation <\/span>of equality<span id=\"E172\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"><\/span><span id=\"E173\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"><\/span><span id=\"E174\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\"><\/span><span id=\"E176\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">, which in a way is similar to the concept of the collective interest of the public at large. <\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"E178\"><span id=\"E179\" class=\"qowt-font2-TimesNewRoman\">As far as the second question is concerned there is no straight jacket formula to determine whether the former view holds good or the latter one. But the one thing that is for sure is that we should always borrow the positive aspects of the other civilizations and legal systems in the world. At the same time, we should also try to mold it in such a way that it can be applied to the Indian context peacefully. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE SABARIMALA VERDICT: INDIAN EQUALITY OR WESTERN EQUALITY? One of the contemporary matters of discussion in the Indian legal scenario revolves around the recent Sabarimala judgment by the Hon&#8217;ble Supreme Court. The judgment is primarily centered around Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees right to equality. It is often viewed as a conflict [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"The Sabarimala Verdict: Indian Equality OR Western Equality?","_seopress_titles_desc":"Guest Post: The Sabarimala Verdict: Indian Equality OR Western Equality?","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[700],"tags":[648,649,650,309],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9396,"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions\/9396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtiwala.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}