Excommunicating Parsi women over interfaith marriage discriminatory: SC
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the practice of excommunicating Parsi women for entering into interfaith marriages is prima facie discriminatory, PTI reported.
A nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the right of conscience under Article 25 (1) of the Constitution is a right by birth and cannot be taken away by marriage.
The bench, also comprising Justices B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B Varale, R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi, was hearing petitions regarding discrimination against women at religious sites, including the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, as well as the scope of religious freedom across various faiths.
The Constitution bench is also examining the question whether the community's religious head's power to expel member(s) from religious life can coexist with the individual's right to profess and practice religion under Article 25.
During the hearing, senior advocate Darius Khambata, who was appearing for a Parsi Zoroastrian woman who married a Hindu man and faced excommunication from the Parsi community due to her interfaith marriage, said such practice is bad in law.
"I am a devotee, I have not forsaken my religion, I am a believer. Just because I have married (I have faced exclusion), that (an interfaith marriage) is not a crime," he submitted, adding that this was a man-made imposition on an otherwise progressive and great religion.
Justice Nagarathna said marriage is the basis of discrimination only if it is a case of a woman entering into marriage with a man from another faith.
The bench observed that such selective excommunication appears to have a discriminatory effect.
"The right of conscience under Article 25 (1) is a right by birth and cannot be taken away by marriage. In this case, marriage as a basis of classification is discriminatory against women," Justice Nagarathna observed.