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Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 24
The Supreme Court on Monday referred petitions challenging the validity of female genital mutilation practised among Dawoodi Bohra Muslims to a five-judge Constitution Bench after Attorney General KK Venugopal made the request.
“I am of the opinion that this matter should be referred to a Constitution Bench,” Venugopal told a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
Petitioners opposed it saying each and every case couldn’t be sent to a Constitution Bench.
“This is not a question of every case. This is a very important case,” said senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi who represented the Dawoodi Bohra community.
Earlier, during the hearing, the top court had questioned the practice of female genital mutilation among Bohra Muslims, saying none should have the right to violate bodily integrity of women.
The Bench--which also included Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud--had in July pointed out that such act would also amount to a crime under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“Why anybody should be allowed to touch the genitals of a human being? Why bodily integrity should be violated and compromised?” it had asked.
Two Bohra women have moved the top court seeking to ban female genital mutilation, contending it violates rights of Bohra Muslim girl children; it causes pain during menstruation, sexual intercourse and urination and adversely affects their libido.
The Attorney General had earlier supported the petition citing a World Health Organisation (WHO ) report which said female genital mutilation adversely affected the health of girls.
On behalf of the Bohra Women Trust, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had opposed the petition, saying it was an essential part of the Dawoodi Bohra community’s religious practice and hence protected under Article 25 of the Constitution which guarantees right to religion. He demanded that the issue should be sent to a constitution bench.
If women did not want it then no one could impose it on them, the CJI had said.
The Supreme Court had in May 2017 issued notices to the Centre and governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan on a PIL seeking a ban on age-old practice of female genital mutilation followed by Dawoodi Bohra Muslims.
It had asked the Centre and the three states to spell out their stand on the controversial practice which many activists term as violation of fundamental rights of women. The followers of this sect mainly reside in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Petitioner Sunita Tiwari, an advocate, demanded a law against female circumcision on the grounds that it violated child rights of Bohra Muslim girls.
Popularly known as ‘khatna’, female genital mutilation involves cutting off the clitoral head which, many Bohras believe, makes women lead a life of infidelity. It’s generally done at a young age by midwives in unhygienic conditions.
According to WHO, it often leads to repeated infections, cysts, infertility, childbirth complications requiring repeated surgeries. The UN General Assembly had in 2012 adopted a unanimous resolution on elimination of this practice. The National Commission for Women, too, supported ban on the practice.
“The practice...also amounts to causing inequality between the sexes and constitutes discrimination against women...It amounts to serious violation of the rights of children as even minors have a right of security of person, right to privacy, bodily integrity and the freedom from cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment,” the petition read.
In the past few years, many women from the community have spoken out against the practice and even launched online campaigns to end what is seen as a patriarchal tradition to curb female sexuality.
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