Will try for stay order on Sabarimala verdict: BJP

New Delhi : Shilpa Nair, BJP leader and one of the petitioners on the issue of entry of women into the Sabarimala temple, said on Thursday she was hopeful of a larger bench going into what the "rights" of the temple deity are.

She said she would try and get a stay order on last year''s verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the temple.

Nair, who is Kerala BJP State Committee member, told IANS that with the matter being referred to a seven-judge bench, it will be "looked at more carefully, and will be more researched and investigated as to what this temple stands for and what actually the deity''s right is".

She tweeted: "The initial petitioners suggested gender discrimination, when there is no discrimination at Sabrimala and it is only about the deity''s wishes."

Nair told IANS: "The first petitioner was Indian Young Lawyers Association which cited women discrimination, when there is no such thing.

It has nothing to do with that because this temple has been following a tradition for many years, because the nature of the deity is Naishtika Brahmacharya (an intense kind of celibacy), and we ourselves are not going to that place during that age.

Women enter the temple after that age and there is no discrimination."

Nair said she was hopeful the larger bench would give a decision in their favour.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Thursday that the RSS and the BJP should accept the Supreme Court's decision in the Sabarimala temple case just as they did in the Ayodhya matter.

He was reacting to the apex court's decision to refer the Sabarimala and similar religious issues to a larger bench. "Our party has always been of the opinion that the court should decide issues like Ayodhya dispute.

"I am happy that all parties accepted the SC decision on this (Ayodhya) issue," he said.