Plea in SC challenges gender bias in Parsi interfaith marriages

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Monday sought the Nagpur Parsi panchayat's response on a Parsi woman's petition challenging the constitutional validity of the religious custom which excommunicated her for marrying a non-Parsi man. She termed the custom gender discriminatory as the rule does not apply to a Parsi man who marries a non-Parsi woman.

Appearing for Dina Budhraja, senior advocate Shyam Divan told the SC that Rule 5(2) of the Nagpur Parsi Panchayat constitution violated Articles 21, 21 and 25 of the Constitution as it discriminated against women by subjecting them to exclusion, denial of religious access, and loss of identity for marrying a non-Parsi, while Parsi men suffered no such disability.A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi issued notices to the Nagpur Parsi Panchayat, Union govt and ministry of minority affairs and said it would examine what interim relief could be granted to the petitioner.

The 43-year-old petitioner said the discriminatory practice under Rules 5(2) and 5(3) was explicit.

"A Parsi man who marries a non-Parsi woman retains his identity and access to religious institutions, whereas a Parsi woman is stripped of both. The classification is founded solely on gender and fails the test of reasonable classification under Article 14," she said in her petition.

Budhraja, who married a Hindu man in 2009 and has a son and daughter, said she has not renounced her religion. "Despite continuing to profess and practice Zoroastrian faith, petitioner has been treated as having ceased to be a Parsi solely by virtue of her marriage with a Hindu man, by virtue of Rule 5(2)," her petition said. "Several other Parsi panchayats, including those in Delhi and Kolkata, do not subscribe to such discriminatory practices and treat men and women equally. The practice followed by the Nagpur Parsi Panchayat is, therefore, neither uniform nor essential to the Zoroastrian faith," Budhraja stated in her petition.


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