Priests in the dark

"We don’t even know what the terms of the settlement are. We are at the center of the dispute and they blatantly excluded us from the entire process,” Ervad Framroze Mirza told Mumbai Mirror (MM), as reported in its issue of February 25, 2015. It is his contention that the parties — the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) who banned the two priests and Jamsheed Kanga who along with Homi Khusrokhan approached the courts for relief on their behalf — cannot decide their fate. "The SC (Supreme Court) should give a verdict, as the mediation was not done in a fair manner. We were kept away,” Mirza said. Concurring, fellow banned priest Ervad Khushroo Madon informed MM, "It is clear that the process of mediation was carried out with a bias.”

(L-R): Ervads Framroze Mirza and Khushroo Madon

The community had breathed a sigh of relief at the successful mediation by former SC judge Sujata Manohar and a joint statement was issued by the petitioners and defendants in the priests ban case (see "A settlement — at last” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, March 7, 2015). The expensive litigation that stretched over four years has cost approximately three crore rupees of community money so far. However, the principal members of the dramatis personae — Madon and Mirza — claim they have been kept in the dark and were not consulted while the ban on them was being discussed. On February 24, 2015 they wrote to Manohar stating that they had been excluded completely from the mediation process, MM reported the next day.
The terms of the settlement have not been made public but according to informed sources the two priests may only perform funerary rites at Doongerwadi for their immediate families. They will also have to give an affidavit stating so which they are not willing to do. Madon told Parsiana his immediate family members are unlikely to predecease him which means he can never perform religious ceremonies at Doongerwadi.
Reports state Kanga and Khushrokhan have conceded the BPP is also a "religious” trust.
Before the ban, the two priests used to perform 15 to 20 rituals in a month (at Doongerwadi), MM reported, but the number has now dwindled. "They have taken away our livelihood. The BPP controls funds and properties. But it does not have any rights over religion,” Mirza told the newspaper.