Senior Advocate Indira Jaising has placed the lived realities of two women she represents, Bindu Ammini and Kanaka Durga, before the 9-judge Bench. She told the Bench that despite the judgment allowing entry of women into Sabarimala Temple remaining in force, these were the only two women who managed to enter the shrine and offer prayers, and even that came at immense personal risk.

“These are the only two women who succeeded… no one else has succeeded since then. Why? Because the State has not cooperated with us.”

Recounting their experiences, Sr. Adv Jaising said Bindu had once visited the temple as a child, but after the judgment, when she returned as an adult, she was met with hostility and violence. “She was mob lynched for having gone there,” she submitted.

Kanaka Durga’s ordeal, she submitted, was equally severe, facing backlash from within her own family and community, to the extent that she could no longer continue living in Kerala and had to leave the state altogether.

She described how one of the women even contemplated leaving the country out of fear, before being persuaded otherwise. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising informed the Bench that one of the women she represents is herself a lawyer, prompting Justice M M Sundresh to observe that “she has done her part as a lawyer.”

However, Jaising clarified that the woman’s decision to enter the temple was not driven by her professional role or any form of activism, but by personal conviction. She emphasised that the act stemmed from individual conscience and belief, rather than identity as a lawyer.

“She went there because her conscience told her to go there… that’s the point I am making.”