Marriage registration a must, NCW tells SC

This would help end juvenile marriages and would deter parents from selling daughters in the garb of marriage.

The National Commission for Women has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to both central and state governments for making marriage registration compulsory, which would help put an end to underage weddings.

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A bench comprising judges Arijit Pasayat and SH Kapadia was of the view that one way of putting an end to juvenile marriages was to make it mandatory for all marriages to be registered and also to state the age of those who were getting married.

In its affidavit, the commission said that it fully supported the proposal as it was of critical importance to various women-related issues such as prevention of child marriages, ensuring a minimum age for marriage, prevention of marriages without consent of both parties, checking bigamy and polygamy, and to enable married women to claim the right to live in their matrimonial houses.

The commission said that the law would also enable widows to claim their inheritance rights and other benefits and privileges they are entitled to after the death of their husbands.