NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday supported restrictions on the entry of girls of menstruating age into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple, arguing earlier than the Supreme Court docket that the 2018 verdict lifting the ban was based mostly on an assumption of males being superor to ladies.A nine-judge Structure bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, is presently listening to a batch of petitions regarding the entry of girls into locations of worship and the broader scope of spiritual freedom throughout faiths.Showing for the Centre, solicitor normal Tushar Mehta submitted that non secular practices can’t be seen solely by way of a gender lens, citing examples the place males are additionally barred or required to observe particular customs in sure temples.Referring to traditions linked to the deity, Mehta argued that the Sabarimala follow is rooted in religion moderately than discrimination. He pointed to Kerala’s Kottankulangara Sree Devi Temple, the place males costume as ladies throughout the Chamayavilakku pageant, underscoring the variety of spiritual customs.“It isn’t a query of male-centric or female-centric beliefs. On this case, it occurs to be women-centric,” Mehta informed the bench, which incorporates Justices B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B Varale, R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi.Extra solicitor normal Okay M Nataraj argued that “public morality,” moderately than “constitutional morality” as interpreted earlier, ought to information the court docket’s strategy.The matter traces again to the Supreme Court docket’s 2018 ruling, which, by a 4:1 majority, struck down the ban on entry of girls aged 10 to 50 on the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, declaring the follow unconstitutional.In 2019, a subsequent five-judge bench led by former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi referred broader questions on gender discrimination in locations of worship throughout religions to a bigger bench, noting that such points require deeper examination past particular person circumstances.The continued hearings are anticipated to find out how constitutional ideas of equality intersect with the appropriate to practise faith.