ritesNew Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) A Parsi trust today broke age-oldtraditions and informed the Supreme Court that it would allowa Parsi woman and her sisters, who have married outside thecommunity, to visit the 'Tower of Silence' and attend prayersin the event of the death of their parents.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief JusticeDipak Misra, which is dealing a legal question whether a Parsiwoman loses her religious identity if she marries a man from adifferent religion, lauded the stand of 'Valsad Parsi Trust'to allow Goolrokh M Gupta and her married sisters to attendprayer in the temple of fire and the last rites of parentsafter their death.
Trust, represented by senior lawyer Gopal Subramanium,said, "it is agreed and declared between the petitioner andrespondent (trust) that the respondent will, on compassionategrounds, permit the petitioner to attend the funeral prayers(Paldust ceremony) of her parents performed inside the prayerhall of the Bungli (bunglow) of the Tower of Silence complex(Doongerwadi) complex at Valsad."The Tower is used for funerary purposes by the adherentsof the Zoroastrian faith, in which the traditional practicefor disposal of the dead involves the exposure of the corpseto the sun and vultures.
The bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A MKhanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said thestatement of the Parsi Trust "meets the present requirement ofthe petitioner (Gupta) and her sisters" and made it clear thatthe issues relating to Gupta's constitutional rights will beadjudicated upon at a later stage on January 17.
When the court asked whether it can pass an order thatnow such women will be allowed to attend last prayers, thesenior lawyer said he has taken instructions only from theValsad Trust and there were several other trusts as well.
As per the tradition, a Parsi woman loses her religiousidentity after marriage outside the community and isconsequently barred from visiting the 'Tower of Silence' inthe event of death of her Parsi family members.
Subramanium, who was asked on December 7 by the court totake instruction from the Trust on allowing the woman, said inall fairness, the trust has decided to allow the woman andwould arrange the priest (mobeds) for her if she cannot manageon her own to perform the last prayers.
Moreover, the children of the woman could also "attendthe funeral ceremonies of their grand parents by sitting inthe pavilion opposite the Bungli along with the members of thecommunities both Zoroastrians and otherwise".
Earlier, the apex court had said that the law does notsanction the concept of a woman's religion getting merged withher husband's faith after an inter-religion marriage.
Gupta has challenged the customary law, upheld by theGujarat High Court in 2010, that a Parsi woman marrying aHindu loses her religious rights in the Parsi community andhence, loses the right to visit the 'Tower of Silence' in theevent of her parents' death to perform the last rites.
The High Court had held that a Parsi woman is deemed tohave converted to Hinduism after she married a Hindu man.
However, the top court bench had said it was only thewoman who can decide about her religious identity byexercising her right to choice.
On October 9, the apex court had referred to a five-judgeconstitution bench the legal question whether a Parsi womanloses her religious identity after marrying a man of differentreligion.
The woman, in her appeal filed in 2012, said she hadmarried a Hindu under the Special Marriage Act and should beallowed to retain her place in the Parsi community. She hadassailed the high court finding that a woman universally losesher paternal identity just because of her marriage with a manpractising the Hindu religion.
She had approached the high court contending that evenafter her marriage with a Hindu man, she has continued tofollow Zoroastrian religion and thus had the right to enjoyall privileges under the Parsi religion, including right tooffer prayers at Agiari, a Parsi temple having the 'holy fire'and the 'Tower of Silence'.
She contended that her rights as a Parsi Zoroastriancannot be denied on the ground that she has married a non-Parsi man. She had also argued that a male Parsi Zoroastriancontinued to enjoy all rights available to a born Parsi, evenif he is married to a non-Parsi Zoroastrian woman. PTI SJK ABAMNL RKSARC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.