Once again the Supreme Court seems to have done the job that Parliament and the executive has long dithered over. In demanding that the central and state governments speed up the process of making the registration of marriages compulsory for all communities, the SC has understood the urgency of this simple procedure that can help check the gross violation of women’s rights in the country. Proof of marriage may not be a panacea, but it can go a long way towards controlling persistent social diseases like child marriage, bigamy and trafficking of women. It is actually baffling as to why the Centre has repeatedly rejected the NHRC’s proposal for such a rule — in 1994, 1996 and 2000 — and allowed the situation to drift unchecked.
A large number of marriages in India take place in violation of existing provisions of the law. Despite the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which penalises under-age marriage, social sanction for this act persists, mainly in states like Rajasthan and UP, and ceremonies are performed openly and in large numbers. In the case of bigamy and trafficking, it often gets difficult for the complainant wife to prove her marital status in the absence of a proof of marriage. And this lacuna is also widely misused to deny marriage and, thus, escape from paying maintenance or to prevent women from inheriting their husband’s property. Gender parity is still a distant goal in this country. But steps like registering marriages will go some way in empowering women and helping them assert their rights.
In the case of marriage registration, unlike others where the spectre of the uniform civil code hangs ominously, the government has no cause to be worried about objections from the minority communities. In any case, the personal laws of the Christian and Parsi communities make registration of marriage mandatory while under Muslim law, the terms of marriage are recorded in the nikahnamma, a contract, which is handed over to the couple. What is really needed is to insert a provision in the Hindu Marriage Act to make registration mandatory. Four state governments — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh — have already gone ahead with this legislation. It is now up to the Centre to make this a uniform rule.
{{/usCountry}}In the case of marriage registration, unlike others where the spectre of the uniform civil code hangs ominously, the government has no cause to be worried about objections from the minority communities. In any case, the personal laws of the Christian and Parsi communities make registration of marriage mandatory while under Muslim law, the terms of marriage are recorded in the nikahnamma, a contract, which is handed over to the couple. What is really needed is to insert a provision in the Hindu Marriage Act to make registration mandatory. Four state governments — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh — have already gone ahead with this legislation. It is now up to the Centre to make this a uniform rule.
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