Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Nagpur Parsi Rule That Bars Interfaith-Married Women From Fire Temple

Overview

• The Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre, the Nagpur Parsi Panchayat, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Maharashtra government, and the Charity Commissioner as it agreed to examine the petition.
• Petitioner Dina Budhraja, a Parsi woman who married a Hindu under the Special Marriage Act, says she was barred from the Nagpur agiary, a Zoroastrian fire temple, during her grandmother’s last rites.
• Her plea uses Article 32, which lets citizens move the top court to enforce fundamental rights, and seeks to strike down Rule 5(2) for violating equality, dignity, and freedom of religion under Articles 14, 21, and 25.
• Rule 5(2) declares that a Parsi woman who marries a non-Parsi, and her children, are not accepted as Parsi, while a parallel rule allows Parsi men who marry outside the faith to retain full access.
• Practices differ across the community, with Parsi bodies in Kolkata and Delhi allowing such women into fire temples, highlighting the non-uniform nature of the claimed religious requirement.