New Delhi, March 23 The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine a significant constitutional challenge involving gender discrimination within religious personal laws, questioning whether a Parsi woman can be deprived of her religious identity following inter-faith marriage.
The top court issued notices to the Centre, the Nagpur Parsi Panchayat, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Maharashtra government, and the Charity Commissioner in response to the petition filed by Dina Budhraja.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi heard preliminary submissions from senior advocate Shayam Divan, representing the petitioner, who is challenging the constitutional validity of Rule 5(2) of the Nagpur Parsi Panchayat's constitution.
The petition, filed under Article 32, stated that the rule is discriminatory and violates Article 14 (equality before law), Article 21 (right to life and dignity), and Article 25 (freedom of religion) of the Constitution.
The rule allegedly deprives Parsi women of their religious identity and access to religious institutions such as the Agyari (Fire Temple) upon marrying a non-Parsi.
However, the rule does not apply the same restrictions to Parsi men who marry outside the community.
Divan emphasized that this issue is a recurring legal battle for the community.
He stressed that the current petition specifically challenges the regulations governing the Nagpur Agyari.
"We are issuing the notice. There is a similar petition with an important legal question," the CJI said.
