After enacting a law to make triple talaq a punishable offence, the Centre told the Top Court on Tuesday that jury system to adjudicate matrimonial disputes, including divorce & child custody, through a jury system needed to be retained for the Parsi community.

In response to a Parsi woman’s petition challenging several provisions of the Parsi Marriage & Divorce Act, 1936, the Centre opposed the petitioner’s claim for parity in the legal system between Hindus & Parsis in matters relating to matrimonial disputes, including divorce.

Petitioner Naomi Sam Irani, through advocate Neela Gokhale, had said the 1936 Act was exasperatingly cumbersome, involving a system akin to jury decision & granted no access to mediation & settlement available to Hindu women under the family court system.

The Centre’s affidavit said the 1936 Act was a pre-constitutional legislation & was considered to conform with the customs of the Parsi community. “When initiatives came from the board of trustees of Parsi Panchayat, Bombay, in 1986 in the form of proposals to amend the Act, the Minorities Commission had considered the said proposals & recommended the same to the govt. Amendments were carried out in 1988 to make certain provisions of Parsi Marriage & Divorce Act similar to Hindu Marriage Act,” it said.

However, the Centre didn't support Irani’s plea for divorce proceedings in family courts as was available to Hindus. “Parsi community is a special community forming part of Indian societal mosaic & it was felt necessary to protect their values, customs, beliefs & practices in the field of personal law. Parsi community, owing to their scarce numbers, also requires to be protected by way of separate mechanism. A special law (like Parsi Marriage & Divorce Act) for that small community, with an intelligibly different or unique structure, is permissible in law,” it said.

Irani had moved a Parsi matrimonial suit in 2016 before the Bombay HC seeking dissolution of her 11-year-old marriage, from which the couple has a 10-year-old son & an 8-year-old daughter. Section 18 of Parsi Marriage & Divorce Act provides for constitution of special courts in Kolkata, Chennai & Mumbai where the chief justice of the High Court concerned would have jurisdiction to appoint a judge who would be aided by five delegates, who together would decide alimony, maintenance as well as custody & maintenance for children & their education.

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