PANAJI
A lawyer has challenged through a 'public interest litigation' the provision in the colonial era mazania law governing temples in Goa which bars women from being appointed mahajans.
The lawyer, Shukr Usgaonkar, has been asked by a bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Mahesh Sonak, to issue notice of his petition in daily newspapers so as to enable all affected parties to intervene.
Interestingly, the move to challenge the law comes a week after Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde had while inaugurating the new building of the Bombay High Court's Goa bench building at Porvorim, praised the Uniform Civil Code, again a colonial era legacy, in Goa.
Most of Goa's temples are governed by the Devasthan Regulation of 1933 which codifies customs and practices in temples existing then. The regulation, like the uniform civil code continued to remain in force even after the liberation of Goa and until date.
The Devasthan law prohibits appointment of women as mahajans, normally a hereditary right of only male descendants of founders of any temple.
"Members (mazanes) shall be those who, according to the respective bye-laws, enjoy this quality, in which their male descendants in direct line and those adopted according to the respective Code of usages and customs shall succeed," states the proviso in the Devasthan Regulation, 1933 which Usgaonkar is challenging.
The discrimination of women has to be reversed as the Constitution forbids any State from discriminating on gender basis.
"Since the Devasthan Regulation, 1933, merely codifies the customs relating to Hindu temples as they existed back then, it is evident that women were always barred from becoming mahajans. This discrimination however received the stamp of approval of the state with the enactment of the Devasthan Regulation in 1933," Usgaonkar states, adding that recent judgments of the Supreme Court in the matter of Sabarimala temple and Bombay High Court in Haji Ali Dargah matter inspired him to file the petition.
The Bench of Chief Justice Dutta and Justice Sonak has asked the State government to respond to their notice by May 7. It has also directed scheduling of the matter for hearing in July.
