Supreme Court to take decision on Parsi-Hindu marriages

New Delhi: A five judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine whether a Parsi woman, marrying a Hindu man will be automatically converted as Hindu and lose the right of Parsi community.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud posted the matter for listing before a larger bench which is to commence hearing from on Tuesday five important cases including the dispute between the Delhi government and the Centre on the ambit and powers of the Union Territory.

The CJI told the counsel for the parties that the larger bench would examine whether the ruling in the ‘triple talaq’ case would have a bearing in this issue and said the matter would be taken up as the sixth item by the bench sitting on Tuesday.

The appeal in the Parsi case arose from a judgment of the Gujarat high court which in 2013 held that a Parsi woman, marrying a Hindu or of any other religious faith, would lose the status of a Parsi and would automatically get converted to the religion of her husband.

Appearing for the woman, senior counsel Indira Jaising told the bench that a Parsi woman married under the Special Marriages Act would not converted as a Hindu. She said religion was a practice followed by the individual and she would not automatically lose that status on marriage.

She said the high court, however, ruled that once a Parsi woman married a non-Parsi, her religious identity would merge with that of her husband and that she would be deemed converted to his religion. If she wanted to continue to be a Parsi, she would have to specifically give up her husband’s religion in court or prove that she led the Parsi way of life. She sought the right to visit the tower of silence in the event of her father’s death to perform last rites.