Courts can’t sit in judgement in matters of religious belief of denomination: TDB tells Supreme Court

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which manages the historic Sabarimala temple in Kerala, told the Supreme Court on Wednesday (April 15, 2026) that religion is a set of beliefs and practices followed by a denomination with a broadly similar identity and the court cannot sit in judgement of that belief.

A nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant was told by the board, which is a statutory autonomous body that manages over 1,000 temples in South India, that the beliefs and practices of the community have to be judged by the subjective belief of the community and the court is bound to accept their belief.