Two women from the Kanthi Bhatia caste are contesting a decision by their community trust to bar their membership after they married men from a different sub-caste.
Manisha Jayesh Nanavati, a resident of Prarthana Samaj, and Heena Sushil Gandhi from Santacruz are contesting the decision of the trust for themselves as well as for similarly placed women who are barred from attending the annual general meeting of the Shree Bombay Kanthi Bhatia Mahajan Trust.
The dispute dates back to 2019 when the women filed a suit in City Civil Court after they were not allowed to attend the AGM of the trust. After an interim order from the court, the women were allowed to the next meeting in the same year. The advocate for the plaintiffs, Sanjay Udeshi, said that since the trustees did not want these women to attend the general body meeting, they did not convene the meetings after 2019. They also did not conduct the election of the board of trustees after its term expired in 2020.
Udeshi further said that the old constitution of the trust, which was enforced in 1943, made no distinction between membership of men and women. There was no embargo on women if they married men from other sub-castes. In their suit, the women said that the trust adopted a new constitution in 1990 that made no distinction between male and female members. A proposed amendment in 2020 as suggested by the committee of reputed community members appointed by the trustees also supported their rights.
The women have alleged that despite all the favourable rules and recommendations by the committee of reputed members, the trust passed a resolution in the special general meeting in June 2022 that these females will no longer be members of the trust. The women have challenged the said resolution on various grounds.
In their suit, the women said that barring them is “arbitrary, unlawful, mala fide, and contrary to the trust’s constitution”. They said before filing the suit they had sought the legal opinion of a retired high court judge who said there was no provision for cessation of membership upon a female member marrying a non-Kanthi.
Meanwhile, in another dispute in the trust, a group of members tried to remove the elected board of trustees on the grounds of no confidence. However, after passing the resolution to remove the board, it was again proposed to appoint as caretakers trustees against whom a resolution of No Confidence was passed. The women were excluded from this meeting too. This matter is pending before the charity commissioner.
Harish Parekh, president of the Shree Bombay Kanthi Bhatia Mahajan, said as per Hindu law, once a woman gets married, she is sapinda of her husband and is transposed to his community. The only exception is women from scheduled castes who continue to access reservation benefits even if they marry a man from a non-scheduled community.
“But some members of our community are seeking to change this rule that a woman gets transposed on marriage even in our community. Even women married outside our community, have voted against giving membership rights to those women married in other communities,” said Parekh. “All these matters are under severe litigation across various forums.”
The suit filed by the women is scheduled to be heard in April.
