In the ongoing hearing of petitions seeking the right to worship for women devotees of the Sabarimala temple before a Justice Dipak Misra-led three-judge bench this afternoon at Court No.4, senior counsel KK Venugopal, while arguing for the temple board, said women could not be recruited to be fielded in the frontline of armed forces, because they lack courage.

The afternoon hearing at Court No 4 of the Supreme Court on the entry of women to Sabarimala temple got interesting with senior counsel for the temple board, KK Venugopal, comparing the discrimination at Sabarimala with similar classification on the basis of gender in other areas of activity.

In the ongoing hearing of petitions challenging the denial of right to worship to women devotees at the Sabarimala temple, Kerala, Justice Kurian Joseph, one of the three judges on the bench, on 18 April, asked amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran, a pointed question: Can you force deity who does not want to see women (of menstruating age), to ‘see’ women?