Violation of fundamental rights of children, sexuality can be affected; high court rejects petition to ban circumcision

KOCHI: The High Court rejected the plea seeking a ban on pre-puberty circumcision of boys. The petition submitted by the rationalist organization was dismissed stating that the court is not a legislative body. The court said that the petition based only on newspaper reports will not stand.

The organization named Non-Religious Citizens argued that performing religious circumcision on boys before reaching the age of 18 is a violation of the fundamental rights of children. Also, the petitioners argued that sexuality will also be affected by this. For this, studies were also submitted to the court confirming that it can affect sexual performance. The demand of the petitioners was to ban religious circumcision and make it a non-bailable offense as it is imposed unilaterally on the children by the parents.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice S Manikumar observed that the court was not a legislative body and the petitioners had failed to prove their contentions with proper arguments. Later the petition was rejected. The state government and the central government have clarified their position on the petition.