The Supreme Court on Monday said that unless a temple had a constitutional right, it could not prohibit the entry of the women pilgrims to offer worship.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice NV Ramana said this in the course of the hearing of a petition by the Indian Young Lawyers Association challenging the Sabrimala Ayyappan Temple’s custom of prohibiting the entry of women devotees between the age of 10 years and 50 years.

Directing that it would examine the challenge to the custom prohibiting the entry of women of this age group, the court observed that a “temple can’t prohibit entry except on the basis of religion. Unless you have constitutional right you can’t prohibit the entry”.

The court directed the next hearing of the matter on 8 February.