The Supreme Court directed Kerala police on Friday to provide round-the-clock security to two women who had entered the Sabarimala temple.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices L.N. Rao and Dinesh Maheshwari said it was only dealing with the aspect of security of the two women and would not like to entertain any other prayer made in the petition.

The bench also refused to tag the matter along with the pending petitions in the Sabarimala case.

The court was hearing the petitions of 42-year-old Bindu, a college lecturer and CPI(ML) activist from Kozhikode district's Koyilandy, and Kanakadurga, 44, a civil supplies department employee from Angadipuram in Malappuram, who had entered the Sabarimala shrine on January 2.

'We deem it appropriate to entertain this writ petition by directing the Kerala police to provide adequate security round the clock to petitioner number 1 (Bindu) and petitioner 2 (Kanakdurga). Beyond that we don't want to go into any of the issues mentioned in the petition,' the bench said.

The petitions had sought security for both women in the light of the life threats they had been getting since visiting the hilltop shrine. One of the women was assaulted by her mother in-law when she returned home.