India, April 10 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday cautioned that excluding people from temples on grounds of caste, belief or denominational identity could have a damaging effect on Hinduism itself, observing that the constitutional endeavour must be to "unify and not create further divisions" within society.

"Keep aside the Sabarimala controversy.everybody must have access to every temple and mutt. But if you say it is a practice.that only my section must attend my temple and no one else, that is not good for Hinduism," the nine-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant remarked, adding that such an approach would end up "dividing the society further." The bench also includes justices BV Nagarathna, MM Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Ama...