Dress code is back in Kerala’s Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has put on hold the order of the Executive Officer of the Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram allowing chudidhar-clad women devotees into the temple.

The Bench, while considering a writ petition filed by four devotees challenging the Executive Officer’s order, ordered that the status quo available prior to the EO’s order be continued for the time being.

The court also pointed out that that M.P. Parameswaran Namboodiri, Thantri of the temple was also of the opinion that the situations prior to the EO’s order should be continued.

The temple’s dress code for women allowed them to be clad in saris, dhoties or skirts, according to their age.

Young girls below the age of 12 are allowed to wear frocks. Men are allowed to wear only dhotis with or without angavastra. But women devotees wearing pants and chudidhar were allowed inside the temple if they cover it with a dhoti.

With the Executive Officer’s order triggering a controversy, the administrative committee had frozen the executive officer’s order.

The petitioners alleged in their petition that despite the administrative committee’s decision, the women wearing chudidhars were allowed into the temple premises.

SOURCE: PTI