D. R. K. SAKLAT Vs. BELLA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE circumstances of this case are as follows: Sometime in 1899 a Goanese Christian named Jones with his wife arrived in Rangoon. They were in humble circumstances, and the wife applied for assistance to a Parsi of good position at Rangoon, Bomanji Cowasji, stating that she too was a Parsi. He befriended her till he went to England in 1900, and then asked his brother Sapurji Cawasji to look after her and the child to which she had just given birth, the respondent Bella. The father died, and when her mother died shortly afterwards, Sapurji, who was a defendant in this suit, but died pending the appeal, took Bella into his own house and he and his wife treated her as their own child.

(2.) WHEN Bella was nearly 14, it was desired that the initiation ceremony into the Zoroastrian religion called Navjot should be performed for her, but the local Head Priest at Rangoon refused, chiefly because--as it appears from his evidence--he thought it would be unpopular with the Parsi community. Advantage was then taken of the temporary presence of some other priest, who performed the ceremony; and after that invitations were sent by the Head Priest to Bella to come with Sapurji and his wife to the temple on festival days. Three such invitations were sent, the High Priest said, with the expectations that they would not be accepted, but on the third occasion, being 21st March 1915, Sapurji brought her and put her within sacred (sic) facing the sacred fire, and in such a (sic) that she went through all the (sic) like other worshippers.

(3.) IN another paragraph of the plaint, they stated that only members of the Parsi community professing the Zoroaslrian religion were entitled to the use of the Temple, to the access of the sacred precincts and to attend, witness or take part in any religious ceremonies held therein, and that it was never the intention of the Parsi community that the children of non-Parsi fathers should be allowed the use of the Temple. They further said that even assuming that Bella could be duly admitted into the Zoroastrian religion, and assuming that her mother was a Parsi, even then she could not be considered a Parsi or a member of the Parsi population. They prayed for a declaration that Bella was not entitled to use the (sic) or to attend or to participate in any of the religious ceremonies performed therein and for injunctions to restrain her from entering the Temple and Sapurji from taking her there.