Allahabad HC's 'manglik' test order for rape survivor forces CJI D Y Chandrachud's hand

An Allahabad High Court judgement requiring that a rape survivor's horoscope be evaluated to see whether she is a 'manglik' prompted Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud to intervene on Saturday, despite him being overseas.

The Supreme Court, which is on a summer break from May 22 to July 22, still heard the matter by way of a special bench comprising of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Pankaj Mithal who suspended the operation of the May 23 order, after they took suo motu cognisance of the matter.

Supreme Court sources told NDTV that the CJI got to know of the Allahabad HC's order in the morning and directed that a bench be set up to take note of the issue. The hearing then took place at 3 pm that day.

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Some segments of Indian society believe that anyone born under the influence of the planet Mars (mangal) has "mangal dosha" (affliction). Marriage between a 'manglik' and a non-'manglik' is considered to be unlucky.

An Allahabad University professor who was imprisoned for raping a woman under the guise of marriage, filed a bail petition with the Allahabad High Court, claiming that he could not marry the woman because she is a 'manglik.' On May 23, the high court had ordered the head of Lucknow University's astrology department to examine the woman's horoscope to determine the veracity of his allegation.

The court asked for the woman's horoscope to be submitted in a sealed envelope within ten days.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared in the matter for the Union government, said the order was very disturbing and might be stayed.

The bench said "What is this got to do with the subject matter. We don't want to spell out several issues, including the right to privacy here," adding "Astrology is a science, no doubt. We respect all this. But the context is not this." Staying the HC order, the bench also said "we don't understand why an Astrology report was called for".

The matter was scheduled for further hearing in July by the bench.