Thiruvananthapuram | Jagran News Desk: Amid tight security, thousands of devotees offered prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple when it opened for the annual Mandala-Makaravilakku puja on Saturday, though police said 10 women were sent back from Pamba base as they were in the "barred" age group.
The temple has reopened just days after a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court referred to a larger bench the matter related to entry of women into the hill temple and other issues related to various faiths.
However, the Kerala government had earlier said that the shrine is "no place for activism" and the activists hoping to make a statement by taking up the pilgrimage will not be given police protection.
In a statement on Friday, Kerala Devaswom Minister Minister Kadakampally Surendran on Friday said that Sabarimala is not a place for activism and the LDF government would not support those who make announcements about entering the hill shrine for the sake of publicity.
He said there were "some confusion" over the latest Supreme Court order and women desirous of visiting Sabarimala should get a "court order".
"Sabarimala is not a place for activists to show their activism. There are some people who call press meet and declare they will enter the shrine. They are doing it just for publicity. Government will not support such trends," he said.
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The security has also been heightened around the hill shrine. More than 10,000 cops will be deployed in four phases. The first batch of devotees have begun their trek towards the shrine, news agency IANS reports.
Meanwhile, women rights activist Trupti Desai, who was not allowed to offer prayers last year, will also be visiting the temple on November 17 regardless of whether or not she is provided security cover. Desai has been a critic of the restriction on the entry of women of a certain age group in the temple.
"If women need protection to trek the hills, police should provide the same. Whether government gives protection or not we will be reaching on November 17 to offer prayers," she said.
This comes after the Supreme Court decided to set up a larger bench to re-examine religious issues, including those arising out of its earlier verdict that lifted a centuries-old ban on women of menstruating age visiting the shrine.
A five judge bench, led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi, said that the larger bench will re-examine various religious issues, including the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple and mosques and the practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.
By a 3:2 verdict, it decided to keep pending the pleas seeking a review of its decision regarding the entry of women into the shrine, and said restrictions on women in religious places was not restricted to Sabarimala alone and was prevalent in other religions as well.
Around 65 petitions, including 56 review petitions and four fresh petitions, had been moved in the apex court against its last year verdict.
(With PTI and IANS inputs)