New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday referred the plea challenging practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) among Dawoodi Bohra Muslims to a five-judge constitution bench.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud was hearing a PIL filed by a Delhi-based lawyer challenging the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) of minor girls of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community.
According to rights activists, this will only lead to a delay in getting a verdict.
Expressing disappointment with the SC’s decision, Masooma Ranalvi, the founder of WeSpeakOut, said: “What is shocking is the clear volte face by the Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, who on previous occasions had said in the courtroom that he supported the petitioner and that the act of FGM is clearly a crime under Indian laws. Today the AG supported the plea of the Dawoodi Bohra Women’s Association for Religious Freedom (DBWRF).”
The group had earlier told the apex court that the female circumcision is practiced by a few sects of Islam, including the Dawoodi Bohra community, and the validity of this be examined, if at all, by a larger constitution bench.
A statement issued by the NGO said that the referral is an attempt “re-frame” the issue from one of FGM being a “violation of constitutional and human” to that of the right to continue the practice “under the garb of religious freedom.”
FGM is performed “illegally upon girls (between five years and before she attains puberty)” and is against the “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which is India is a signatory”, the plea said, adding the practice caused “permanent disfiguration to the body of a girl child”.
World over there are campaigns to end this practice which is viewed as a human rights violation, with over 59 countries having strong legislation against it.
(PTI)