Priests ban clarification

On April 27, 2015 the Supreme Court approved the settlement arrived at in February 2015 between Jamsheed Kanga and Homi Khusrokhan with the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP). This clarification is being issued to remove all doubts and misunderstandings on the subject both for the benefit of our priests and families who wish to avail of their services for prayers to be offered at Doongerwadi.
Under the Deed of Trust of 1884 the BPP trustees cannot hereafter prevent any duly ordained Parsi/Irani Zoroastrian priest from performing Zoroastrian religious rites and ceremonies in the premises of the Towers of Silence. This is now the law of the land and will hold good for all time to come.
The BPP trustees hereafter have the right to exclude a priest from praying at Doongerwadi solely if he does any act contrary to religion or misconducts himself within the Doongerwadi property. A priest who is charge-sheeted or convicted of an offence involving moral turpitude will not be allowed to conduct prayers at Doongerwadi (or at the two agiaries managed by BPP), unless such charge-sheet is dismissed or conviction set aside.
All Parsi Irani Zoroastrians, being beneficiaries of the Trust Deed of 1884, can utilize the services of any duly ordained priest and the trustees are bound to permit such priests to offer the traditional prayers for the deceased at Doongerwadi. All priests can now perform obsequies at Doongerwadi as well as at other places (for those who choose to be consigned through alternate methods of disposal) without fear of reprisal from BPP trustees, present or future.
The settlement expressly clarifies that issues of conversion, how a duly ordained Parsi-Zoroastrian priest ceases to be a priest and the powers, duties and rights of the high priests did not arise in the court proceedings, and therefore the settlement does not deal with these issues. The trustees have stated that they are not claiming the power to decide that a duly ordained Parsi-Zoroastrian priest ceases to be a priest.
Regarding the concerns expressed of alleged discrimination against Ervads Framroze Mirza and Khushroo Madon, Mirza in an affidavit filed on March 2, 2010 in the Bombay High Court stated on oath that he has no intention of defying the ban and no desire to ever pray at Doongerwadi. He has also publicly stated this in subsequent interviews in the Press.
Despite considerable efforts, the majority of the BPP trustees were insistent that they would permit Madon to pray at Doongerwadi only for members of his immediate family. Had Kanga and Khusrokhan not made this concession the mediation would have collapsed without a settlement being reached. (The duo) agree that this is unfortunate, but they had to make the difficult call that the benefits from the settlement for all priests, for all time to come outweigh the benefit to a single individual. It was also important to put a stop to the use of the community’s funds, which the trustees would have continued to spend, if the matter had gone back to the Supreme Court.
Looking at it positively, no mobed, including Madon’s sons, will ever have to undergo any bans from the BPP henceforth.
DINSHAW TAMBOLY, DARIUS J. KHAMBATA,
EDUL P. BHARUCHA, Dr RUSTOM SOONAWALA, BYRAM JEEJEEBHOY, FALI P. SARKARI, BERJIS DESAI, MINOO R. SHROFF, MANECK H. ENGINEER, KEKI M. ELAVIA,
KARL F. TAMBOLY AND JAMSHED B. JEEJEEBHOY