New Delhi: Registration of a marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA) will not confer any marital status to a couple unless their union is solemnised according to the rituals mentioned under the law, the Supreme Court has ruled.
A bench led by Justice B.V. Nagarathna emphasised the “material and spiritual” aspects of a marriage under HMA to postulate that merely getting a certificate issued without the “requisite” marriage ceremonies is of no legal consequence.
Pronounced Tuesday, the judgement came on a petition filed by a woman seeking transfer of her divorce case from Muzaffarpur in Bihar to Ranchi in Jharkhand. In this case, the couple registered their marriage in Uttar Pradesh without the ceremonial procedure given in the HMA.
The court deprecated the growing practice of couples getting their marriages registered for “practical purposes”, particularly applying for a visa and then solemnising the marriage at a future date.
“What would be the consequences, if no such marriage is solemnised at all at a future date?” the court wondered, refraining from discussing the vulnerability of illegitimate children born outside the wedlock, “who yearn for status equal to legitimate children in society”.
The bench urged “young men and women to think deeply about the institution of marriage even before they enter upon it.” Being a sacred institution of the Indian society, a marriage is “not an event for ‘song and dance’ and ‘wining and dining’ or an occasion to demand and exchange dowry and gifts by undue pressure leading to possible initiation of criminal proceedings thereafter”, the court said.
It is not a commercial transaction, but a solemn foundational event celebrated to establish a relationship between a man and a woman who acquire the status of a husband and wife for an evolving family in the future “which is a basic unit of Indian society”.
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‘Sacred process cannot be a trivial affair’
The case in which the court was compelled to make such observations emanated from a marital discord between a couple who are commercial pilots. Engaged in March 2021, the couple claimed to have solemnised their marriage in July 2021 based on a “marriage certificate” obtained from Vaidik Jankalyan Samiti, a local religious organisation.
Later, the couple registered their marriage under the Uttar Pradesh Marriage Registration Rules, 2017. Their families had fixed a date in October 2022 to marry them as per the rituals.
Before the marriage ceremony could be solemnised, however, differences arose between the two, resulting in the registration of a dowry harassment case by the woman against the man and his family. In March 2023, the man approached the family court in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, with a divorce petition under the HMA. To transfer this case from Bihar to Jharkhand, the woman moved the Supreme Court.
During the hearing in her petition, the woman’s lawyer claimed there was no marriage in the eyes of the law because it was not performed as the rituals codified in HMA. Therefore, he argued, the man could not ask for divorce.
After much deliberation, the couple filed an application in the apex court asking it to exercise its jurisdiction under Article 142 and declare that their marriage wasn’t valid.
During the hearing, the court observed that a Hindu marriage facilitates procreation, consolidates the family, and solidifies the spirit of fraternity within various communities.
On the importance of HMA, the court said that besides providing a mechanism for registration of marriages “to confer the status of a married couple and acknowledge rights in personam and rights in rem, a special place is given to rites and ceremonies in the Act”.
Therefore, the “critical conditions for the solemnising of a Hindu marriage should be assiduously, strictly and religiously followed”, the bench said, adding that such a “sacred process cannot be a trivial affair”.
Section 5 of the HMA lays down conditions for a marriage while section 7 outlines the ceremonies that need to be followed for solemnisation of a marriage between a man and woman who are Hindus. Under Section 8 of the Act, a Hindu couple married according to the law can register their marriage. The Act enables the state government to make rules for registering marriages.
The advantage of registering a marriage is that it grants legitimacy and facilitates the proof of a Hindu marriage. But, for that, there has to be a Hindu marriage according to Section 7, the court said.
“In the absence of there being a valid Hindu marriage, the Marriage Registration Officer cannot register such a marriage under the provisions of Section 8 of the Act,” declared the bench.
It went on to observe: “We note that parents of young couples agree for marriage registration in order to apply for a visa for emigration to foreign countries where either of the parties may be working ‘in order to save time’ and pending formalising a marriage ceremony. Such practices have to be deprecated.”
‘Absence of customs would render such a marriage invalid’
During the hearing, the bench perused the marriage certificate produced in the case, holding that since the document was issued in the absence of ceremonial requirements under Section 7 of HMA the certificate ought to be declared “null and void.” It also quashed the divorce petition filed by the man and the maintenance case instituted by the woman.
The dowry case registered at the instance of the woman was also quashed.
The 18-page ruling delved into the aspects of HMA and its objectives. Hindu marriage is a sacrament or a samskara, which creates the foundation of a new family in which a wife is not the “better half,” but is considered to be a “half of oneself,” “to be accepted with an identity of her own and be an equal partner”, the court said.
The order also quoted from the Rig Veda the lines uttered during the saptapadi and pointed out that after completing the seventh step, the groom says: “With seven steps, we have become friends. May I attain friendship with thee; may I not be separated from thy friendship”.
“In effect, a union of two persons under the provisions of the Act, by way of a Hindu marriage gives them the status and character of being a husband and wife in society. The said status is of significance in as much as a man and a woman cannot be treated as a husband and a wife unless a marriage is performed or celebrated with proper and due ceremonies and in the prescribed form,” the court noted.
The customary ceremonies, with all its attendant geographical and cultural variations, are said to purify and transform the spiritual being of an individual, the court observed.
Even if the couple has complied with the requisite conditions for a valid Hindu marriage under Section 5 of the Act, the absence of customs would render such a marriage invalid in the eyes of the law.
“In other words, a certificate of marriage is a proof of (the) validity of Hindu marriage only when such a marriage has taken place and not in a case where there is no marriage ceremony performed at all,” the court said.
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