The Centre has urged the Supreme Court to uphold the restriction on entry of women of menstruating age into Kerala's Sabarimala temple, arguing that the issue falls beyond the scope of judicial review.
The government has filed written submissions in support of the review petitions against the 2018 judgment that had opened the temple to women of all ages.
The Centre has contended that questions of who may enter a place of worship are not facets of gender discrimination but are rooted in religious practice, belief, and the specific character of the deity.
The government has also urged the court to declare that the law and reasoning in the 2018 Joseph Shine judgment, which struck down the offence of adultery, are not good law.
The Centre has argued that the essentiality of a practice must be determined by the denomination itself, based on its understanding of scripture and tradition, and not by courts.
The government has also advanced a broader doctrinal claim that the attributes of a deity are not open to judicial review.
Courts, it argued, cannot "reform" or reinterpret the nature of a deity by declaring certain attributes to be non-essential or irrational.
