Parsi woman in Supreme Court over religion loss order

NEW DELHI: A Parsi woman Tuesday questioned a decision of the Valsad Parsi Panchayat barring women who married men of another faith from attending funeral rites of their parents, and challenged a Gujarat high court judgment that stated a woman’s religion is extinguished with marriage as she embraces the husband’s religion.

Appearing for Goolrokh M Gupta, senior advocate Darius J Khambata told a nine-judge bench led by CJI Surya Kant that most Parsi Panchayats impose no restrictions on community women even if they marry outside Zoroastrian faith, but the Valsad Parsi Panchayat had imposed restrictions, which do not apply to Parsi men marrying women professing another religion.

Khambata asked how the woman, who continued to practise Zoroastrianism for all purposes even after marrying a Hindu man under the Special Marriage Act, could be deprived of or discriminated against from entering the place of worship. Parsi Panchayat is an administrative body and not a religious denomination that can create practices not prescribed in religion, especially when they are not applicable to men from the community, he said.

Justice Nagarathna said, “It appears to be a discrimination on the grounds of marriage.” Khambata said the HC ruling would have serious ramifications on anti-conversion laws as it held that marriage means a woman automatically converts to her husband’s religion.