Sabarimala verdict likely Friday

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce Friday its verdict on the plea challenging the practice of prohibiting women of ages 10 to 50 from entering the Sabarimla temple. The hearing on the challenge to the practice by the five-judge constitution bench had seen Kerala government asserting that the Sabarimala temple does not belong to a religious denomination and it could not invoke the protection of Article 26 of the Constitution to save the practice of prohibiting women in the said age group from entering the temple. The matter saw the Left Front government telling the court that Lord Jagannath’s temple, Kashi Vishwnath temple and similar religious places are not denominational temples but the Ramakrishna Mission was a denominational entity.