Does a woman lose religious identity post inter-religious marriage?

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a Constitution Bench the question whether a woman loses her original religion and embraces her husband's religion after marrying under the Special Marriage Act.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud was hearing a petition filed by Goolrakh Gupta, a Parsi Zoroastrian woman, raised the legal issue whether she gets automatically converted to Hindu religion after her marriage to a Hindu man. The bench referred the matter to the Constitution Bench.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Indira Jaising told the court that a woman should be allowed to retain her religious identify even after marrying a person from different religion.

Jaising assailed the Gujarat High Court judgment that said the petitioner Parsi woman's religious identity had merged into that of her Hindu husband whom she married under the Special Marriage Act.

The Parsi woman has challenged the Parsi law that says that a Parsi woman loses her religious rights in the Parsi community after marrying a man from another religion.

Jaising said a woman has a personality of her own and it does not gets erased by marriage. The petitioner Parsi woman, Jaising said, continues to practice Parsi religious practices even after her marriage.

According to the woman, she was denied entry to the Tower of Silence for the funeral of her father and that there was no law in India which said the wife must adopt her husband’s religion.

The Gujarat High Court had held that a Parsi woman’s religion is automatically converted to Hinduism after marrying a Hindu man under the Special Marriage Act.