Former judge of the Supreme Court and the lone dissenter in the Sabarimala case, Justice Indu Malhotra, visited the temple on Friday, January 13, ahead of the Makaravilakku festival. During the verdict in the case about allowing women of all ages entry into the Sabarimala temple, it was Justice Malhotra who dissented against four other justices.
In her judgement, Justice Malhotra had said that what constitutes an “essential religious practice” is for the religious community to decide, and not the court. “It is not for the courts to determine which of these practices of a faith are to be struck down, except if they are pernicious, oppressive, or a social evil, like Sati,” her opinion said.
Earlier last year in August, she got into a controversy after a video emerged of Justice Malhotra remarking that the Communist governments were “taking over” Hindu temples across the country. She was interacting with devotees outside the Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram when she made the comment.
When a woman spoke about the 2020 Supreme Court judgment upholding the rights of the Travancore royal family to maintain and manage the temple, Justice Malhotra was heard saying, “...how can you exclude them from the administration? That’s what happens with these Communist governments, they just want to take over because of the revenue. Their problem is the revenue. All over they have taken over, all over, only Hindu temples. So Justice Lalit and I said no, we will not allow it.”
State’s former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac responded to her comment and said that she was “ignorant” of Kerala’s public finance. “Justice Indu Malhotra is ignorant of public finance of Kerala government, and worse, deeply prejudiced against communists. Not a paise of temple revenues enter budget receipts, while hundreds of crores are spent for facilities for devotees and to support temple administration,” Isaac said in a tweet.