The Special Marriage Act, 1954 provides a special form of marriage in the cases where the parties want to opt for a court marriage or when both the parties belong to different religious backgrounds. The Act signifies the legal Valid Marriage and specifies the procedure for its registration. Under section 4 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954there are few conditions for solemnizing a marriage that are as follows:-
- Parties should not have a spouse living.
- Parties should be capable of giving a valid consent.
- Parties are not within the degree of prohibited relationship.
- The male must have completed the age of twenty-one years and female the age of eighteen years.
If any Hindu girl wants to marry a Muslim boy or Vice Versa, they have three Options which they can choose to solemnize their marriage that are:-
- Muslim Law: The Hindu girl could convert to Islam to perform the Marriage. Muslim Law has its own provisions in which there is a need for proposal IJAB and acceptance QUBUL in order to get into a marriage contract between them.
- Hindu Law: The second option is that the Muslim boy could convert into Hinduism to perform the Marriage. There will be a ceremony namely name changing ceremony where the person will be given a traditional Hindu name. When a Muslim boy converts into Hinduism and starts following the Hindu rituals, then the parties can get married as per the provisions of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
- The Special Marriage Act 1954: This Act was enacted to enable parties belonging to two different religions to get married as per the procedure laid down under the Act.
The Procedure which needs to be followed under The Special Marriage Act, 1954.
- When both the parties are willing to marry each other, the parties should give notice in writing in a prescribed form to the Marriage Officer of the district in which any one of the parties has stayed for a period of not less than 30 days. (section 5)
- Fee has to be paid for the publication of the notice, which will be published by the Marriage Officer by affixing a copy of the notice to some conspicuous place in his office. (section 6)
- The notice may be presented before the Marriage Officer by both the parties in person or by registered post. Fee for the notice charge should be sent by money order.
- Before the expiration of 30 days from the date on which the notice has been published, any person between the parties can object to the marriage on the ground that it would contravene one or more of the conditions given in section 4. If no objection is made within 30 days against the marriage, the marriage may be performed under Section 7 (2).
- On receipt of Application signed by both the parties and also after publication of the notice, the marriage will be registered on the expiry of the notice. The certificate will be signed by both the parties and three witnesses.
Recently, due to an increase in the number of honour killing cases by Khap Panchayats the Supreme Court Bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y.Chandrachud on August 21st,2017 in the case of Shakti Vahini vs Union of India and others, passed a Judgement in which the court held that any attempt by Khap Panchayats or any other assembly to scuttle or prevent two consenting adults from marrying is absolutely illegal.
The Supreme Court had said We are on a very fundamental issue. The marriage is between two adults and it is their choice. You cannot take the law into your own hands. Khaps has no business in such matters. The bench made it clear that whether a marriage was null or void or illegal could be decided by the court under the law.
India is one of the most diverse countries where people from different religions reside. Earlier a person used to marry blindly as per the wishes of his/her parents. But now the time has changed, and the person marries only with someone with whom he/she has a better compatibility irrespective of the religion. Thus in the changing times the Special Marriage Act, 1954 has an extended scope enabling people to marry as per their choices without changing their religion.
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