Supreme Court constitution bench to hear plea on female genital mutilation

Female genital mutilation is practised by Dawoodi Bohra Muslims.

The Supreme Court Monday referred a plea, seeking ban on the practice of female genital mutilation prevalent among the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims, to a five-judge constitution bench.

A view of the Supreme Court on July 09, 2018. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

The reference was made by a bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra after hearing brief submissions of Dawoodi Bohra Women’s Association for Religious Freedom, stating that FGM has been practised for centuries and is also an essential religious practice protected under the Constitution. Therefore, the matter should be referred to a larger bench.

Masooma Ranalvi, founder of an NGO working for FGM survivors and an intervenor in SC, was disappointed. “The referral is an attempt to re-frame the issue from being a violation of the Constitutional and human rights, to that of a right to continue this discriminatory practice under the garb of religious freedom.”