SC directs Kerala govt to provide protection for two women who entered Sabarimala

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Kerala government to provide proper and adequate security to two women who had entered Sabarimala's Lord Ayyappa shrine triggering widespread outrage and protests across the state.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari directed protection be provided to Kanaka Durga and Bindu Ammini, even as it refused to tag their petition with the batch of review petitions that were likely to be taken up for hearing on January 22.

"Beyond that we don't deem it necessary to go into any in other issue," Chief Justice Gogoi said.

The Kerala government told the court that it has already provided security to the two women and added that ever since the Constitution Bench judgment of September 2018 lifted the ban on the women between age groups of 10 to 50 entering the Sabarimala temple, 51 women have already entered done so.

"You are responsible for their life and security. If you care doing without our order, continue doing it," CJI Gogoi told senior counsel Vijay Hansaria who appeared for Kerala.