Court case(2019) 11 SCC 1

Women between the ages of ten and fifty were excluded from the Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa in Kerala on the ground that the deity is an eternal celibate. Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules 1965 allowed the exclusion of women "at such time during which they are not by custom and usage allowed to enter a place of public worship". The Kerala High Court had upheld the practice in 1991. The Indian Young Lawyers Association filed a public interest petition under Article 32 challenging the exclusion; a three-judge Bench referred the matter to a Constitution Bench in 2017.

By 4:1 the Court struck down the exclusion. Misra CJ (for himself and Khanwilkar J) held that the devotees of Ayyappa do not constitute a separate religious denomination, that the exclusion is not an essential practice of Hinduism, that "morality" in Article 25(1) means constitutional morality, and that Rule 3(b) is ultra vires section 3 of the 1965 Act and unconstitutional. Nariman J concurred, holding the practice violative of Article 25(1) and the Rule void. Chandrachud J concurred, adding that exclusion founded on notions of menstrual impurity is a form of untouchability prohibited by Article 17 and that the Constitution, not religion, is the standard of morality. Malhotra J dissented: the petitioners were not devotees and had no standing, courts should not test the rationality of religious beliefs, the Ayyappa devotees form a denomination, and constitutional morality in a plural society protects a community's right to decide its own essential practices.