Sabarimala Reference | ‘Excommunication is closest it can come to civil death’: Respondents argue
On the thirteenth day of hearings, Respondents pressed that the practice of excommunication in the Dawoodi Bohra community led to suffering across generations, and that ‘morality’ in Article 25 must be construed as the Constitution’s ‘internal morality’.
Ananya Gunjan
Published on: 8 May 2026, 02:13 pm
ON THURSDAY, Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran continued with his submissions regarding the excommunication faced by members of the Dawoodi Bohra Community, as Respondents continued arguments on the thirteenth day of hearings in the Sabarimala Reference.
‘Excommunication as close as it gets to ‘civil death’’: Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran
At the very outset of his submissions, Ramachandran talked about the ingrained fear of reprisal which prevented people from speaking up on the injustices meted out by the practice of excommunication. He cited the findings of the Nathwani Commission report which comprised instances of the crushing impacts of excommunication in the form of - breaking up of marriages, loss of employment, complete denial of entry into the mosque and the loss of the right to be buried in the graveyard of one’s community which leads to an inescapable form of social ostracisation.
On the practice of excommunication, Ramachandran referred to the Privy Council Judgement of Hasanali v.Mansoorali (1947) which upheld the power of Syedna to excommunicate as a result of which the State in its power had tried twice to safeguard the individuals from this practice by the virtue of bringing forth the the Bombay Prevention of Excommunication Act, 1949 and the Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016.
The 1949 Act’s validity was challenged by the Syedna with the Bombay High court upholding the validity of the Act. Dissatisfied with the Court’s stance, the Syedna eventually appealed against the decision in the Supreme Court. The appeal, however, became infructuous due to the death of the original plaintiff. The Syedna had approached the Supreme Court again in 2023.
During the hearing, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant observed that it was an oversight on the part of the Court by not impleading the members of the Dawoodi Bohra community as a party. The very nature of excommunication was gravely questioned by Ramachandran as he noted that it was ‘as close as it can get to a ‘civil death’’, highlighting the suffering endured by generations of families. He stressed upon the nefarious design of a practice like excommunication which had a debilitating impact on the lives of the victim.
