History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

256 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP v.

new phase in the legal status of the Parsis of Bombay came into effect. On the 17th of July in that year the Privy Council decided (in the case of Ardeshir Kharshedji versus Pirozbai) that the late Supreme Court of Bombay, on tts ecclesiastical side, had no jurisdiction to entertain a suit brought by a Parsi wife against her husband for restitution of conjugal rights, and for maintenance,—intimating at the same time that the late Supreme Court, on its civil side, might possibly administer some kind of remedy for the violation of the duties and obligations incident to or arising out of the matrimonial union between Parsis.

But that was a costly and hazardous experiment, and no Parsi would resort to it. Practically, therefore, the Parsis, as regards the enforcement of all duties and obligations arising out of the marriage union, were without any law, and the Parsi Law Association, as soon as the decision of the Privy Council was known in the case cited, set about to remedy the evil by drawing up this supplemental code, and submitting it to Sir Joseph Arnould’s Commission, so that it might be considered along with the draft Act relating to intestate succession.

The Government Commission, after a very searching and exhaustive inquiry extending over a period of about eight months, made its report on the 13th of October 1862. That lucid and most interesting document will well repay perusal. But we think