Family Law is a matter of Concurrent List under the Seventh Schedule to the Indian Constitution. Therefore, both, the State as well as the Central legislature can enact laws relating to the same. Marriage registration is one such connected aspect.
Gone are the days, when people had to wait in long queues to get their marriage registered. The general practice that almost all States have their respective State laws governing matters related to marriage, divorce, custody, maintenance etc. However, the position changed a little about a year above a decade earlier. In 2006, the Supreme Court in the landmark ruling of Seema v. Ashwani Kumar, made it mandatory for all couples whose marriage ceremonies had happened in India to get their marriages registered. Prior to that, there was no uniformity with respect to the same. Some states had made it mandatory while others didn’t make marriage registration a compulsion. However, post the Supreme Court ruling in 2006, it was made mandatory for all Indian couples to register their marriage. There was even an attempt by the legislature to give statutory backing to the rule. A bill named, Compulsory Registration of Marriage was introduced, however, the same lapsed and failed to get enacted into a law. Recently, another bill to the tune of Mandatory Registration of Non-Resident Indians Bill 2019.
Now, registration of marriages can be done via an online procedure. First and foremost, the couple will have to make an account on the online website of the municipal corporation of the district in which either of the parties who are getting married are domiciled or where the marriage ceremonies were solemnized. For instance, the link for online registration that has been created by the government of Maharashtra can be accessed.
Once the account has been created, the couple will have to login to the website using their account and submit soft copies of the listed documents. Some of these documents including, but are not limited to:
- Proof of the marriage- This may be a photo of the married couple from their wedding ceremonies or a copy of the invitation to the wedding etc.
- Proof of the age of both parties in the couple- Both members to the marriage will have to submit their birth certificates or any other validly recognised proof of age. This is done in order to prevent social evils like child marriage.
- Identity proof- Both parties to the marriage will have to submit proofs of their identities to prevent malpractices like fraud etc.
- Death certificate of the previous spouse if one of the spouses is a widow or widower will have to be submitted. Also, if one of them was previously married, they would also have to submit the divorce decree from their previous marriage. Such verification is necessary to prevent allegations of bigamy or polygamy that may arise in future on account of any one of the spouses.
After the form for registration of marriages has been duly submitted along with all the required documents, the couple will get an appointment slip on which will be specified the date of their appointment. On the above-mentioned date, the couple will have to go to the marriage registrar, which post may be an alter-ego of sub-divisional magistrate. The couple will also have to carry along with themselves this time, a hard-copy of all the documents they had submitted online. Additionally, on the day of the appointment, the couple is accompanied by a gazette officer, who must have attended/ witnessed their marriage.
Procuring the marriage certificate may take either 30 or 60 days, depending on whether the couple’s marriage was solemnized under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 or the Special Marriage Act, 1954. Regardless of the religion, all couples have to go through a uniform process of marriage registration. Similarly, the fees for the same may vary from about Rupees 100 to 150.
There is also the provision, for obtaining a marriage certificate within 24 hours of the marriage, however, the fees charged are exorbitant, to the tune of INR 10, 000. This is known as “Tatkal Marriage Registration certificate”. Couples which need their marriage certificate for the purposes of travel abroad, for example, for their visas, residence permits etc. might require their marriage registration certificate in such an expeditious manner.
Often, people tend to get confused between marriage registration and court marriages. The common misconception is that a court marriage and a registration of marriage is one and the same thing. However, that is not the case. Regardless of whether a couple got married in a court or before their family and friends in a private ceremony, registration of the marriage is a separate procedure that all couples need to comply with.
There are several benefits of getting a marriage registered. Just for instance, the couple will not face additional technical difficulties in future in case of divorce, claims related to maintenance, separation, custody of children etc. thus ensuring a smooth and hassle-free procedure for all of the above.
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