The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up Sabarimala temple authorities regarding the ban on entry of women into the temple and asked whether such archaic traditions were more important than constitutional rights, IBN reported. The court will hear the case next on April 13, reported The Indian Express.

"What is the basis on which women have been denied entry into temples. Anyone can worship god, he is omnipresent," the apex court observed, and said gender discrimination in such a matter was unacceptable. In January, the court had asked if there was any proof that women did not enter the Sabarimala shrine 1,500 years ago. The temple is believed to be older than that.

Only females over the age of 50 and under the age of 10 are allowed inside the temple. The rule is aimed at keeping menstruating women away from the premises as they are considered impure by a conservative section of Indian society. In 2015, the head of the temple's board had said that women can enter the temple only after a body scanner is created to determine their purity.