Women cannot be seen as ‘untouchables’ for three days a month: Justice Nagarathna in Sabarimala case

Justice Nagarathna asserts that menstruating women cannot be treated as 'untouchables,' highlighting discrimination in the Sabarimala case.

Women cannot be treated as ‘untouchables’ selectively for three days a month, the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday (April 7, 2026).

Justice B.V. Nagarathna’s remarks came against the backdrop of submissions referring to the erstwhile prohibition on menstruating women, barring them from entry into the Sabarimala temple. A 2018 judgment by the Supreme Court had lifted the centuries’ old prohibition on entry to the famed Kerala shrine by women in the years between menarche and menopause. The court had said the prohibition reduced freedom of religion to a “dead letter” and was a smear on the individual dignity of women.

“Speaking as a woman, I can say there cannot be untouchability practised for three days every month, and no untouchability on the fourth day. Let us go by hard realities. Speaking as a woman, Article 17 (abolition of untouchability) cannot apply for three days and on the fourth day there is no untouchability,” Justice Nagarathna emphasised while addressing the Union government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The Centre expressed strong reservations against the 2018 Sabarimala judgment comparing the bar on women’s entry into the temple to the practice of untouchability.

The comparison of the temple prohibition to the practice of untouchability had been made by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud (now retired), in his separate opinion which formed part of the 2018 Sabarimala majority judgment. Justice Chandrachud had termed the social exclusion of women, based on menstrual status, a “form of untouchability,” saying that notions of “purity and pollution” stigmatise individuals. To exclude women was derogatory to an equal citizenship, he had observed in his opinion.

“India has always treated women not only equally but on a higher pedestal. We are uniquely the only culture which bow down to women deities. But there are several recent judgments which accuse us of patriarchy, gender stereotyping... it was never there. We worship ladies. From the President of India to the judges of the Supreme Court, we bow down before our lady deities… India is not as patriarchal or gender-stereotyped as the West understands,” Mr. Mehta submitted on Tuesday (April 7, 2026).