Inter Faith Marriage – No Need to Change
Marriage is considered to be a sacred act. Under the Hindu regime, it is not only considered to be union of two individuals, rather it is considered to be union of two families. Marriage being a sacred act, have been codified into various laws such as Hindu Marriage Act, Muslim Marriage Act and Special Marriage Act.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- History
- Codification of Marriage
- Special Marriage Act
- Procedure under Special Marriage Act
- Conclusion
However, the provisions related to marriage were not always codified. During the medieval period, marriage was considered to be a contract between the parties, wherein, both the parties of the same caste join their hands and decides to spend their lives together. Thus, parties were not subject to any rules and laws, rather was governed by the norms of the society.
Codification of Marriage
However, as the time pass by and democracy prevailed, legislature felt the need to codify the marriage in the form of law as well, in order to protect the sanctity of the marriage. Under the framed laws, marriage among Hindus were to be guided by the Hindu Marriage Act. Similarly, marriage among Muslims have to be guided. However, the question arises when two persons belonging to different caste, tend to fall in love and decided to get married. Inter caste marriage was still considered a taboo and therefore, those who wanted to get married to someone different from their cast, they have to first convert into different religion and then were allowed to get married.
Therefore, legislature decided to frame special marriage act in order to protect the interest of those inter-caste persons who decided to get married. Not only does it protect the interest of those people but also proves to be the guiding act in these cases.
Special Marriage Act
In India, inter caste marriages are still frowned upon and are still considered a taboo. Thus, people are expected to marry in their communities only and not outside their communities, thereby maintaining social hierarchy. Furthermore, each religion and community have their own norms, which its people are expected to follow while determining their life partners.
However, times arrives when people decided to marry someone outside of their caste. Legislature therefore, decided to frame Special Marriage Act, 1954. This provides a special form of marriage for the people of India and Indian nationals in foreign countries, irrespective of the caste and religion they follow.
The purpose of the act is to allow the people of inter caste and inter religion to get married without having to change their religion. It applies to people from different casts being Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists and further applies to every citizen living in India and abroad.
Procedure Under Special Marriage Act
Unlike the traditional forms of marriage under the Hindu and Muslims laws, all required under the Special Marriage Act is the consent of both the parties. After there is consent of both the parties to the marriage, they have to submit an application in writing to the marriage registrar of the district where the parties ordinarily resides or has resided for at least past 30 days.
Once the application is received by the marriage registrar, the registrar then give 30 days notice period to the families of the parties to file an objection, if they want within 30 days of the receipt of the notice.
In case there is no objection to the application of the parties, then the registrar will proceed with the marriage registration and further, will enter their name in the books maintained by them, thereby solemnizing the marriage.
However, in case of objections, such objections will be recorded in the books maintained by the registrar alongwith the name of the person filing the objections, and then the registrar will have the power to inquire into the validity of the objection. In case the registrar found objections to be valid, the application will be rejected. However, on the alternative, if the objections are found to be vague, the application will be proceeded with and the marriage will be solemnized.
However, inter caste marriage still being a stigma, it have been observed by the courts in the past that both the boy and the girl are in immediate threat and danger from their families and relatives, when they opt for inter caste marriage. Therefore, Supreme Court in the case of Lata Singh v. State of U.P., directed the legislature to formulate a uniform machinery throughout the country to take appropriate steps to protect the boy and the girl, who decides to go for inter caste marriage and further ensure that they are not subjected to violence or harassment.
Another case of cruelty and torture came before the court in the case of Mayakaur Baldevsingh Sardar v. State of Maharashtra, wherein the girl and boy who fell in love and decided to get married despite being inter caste were threatened with dire consequences by girl’s family members and were later on murdered one evening. Trial Court sentenced the girl’s family to death on account of gruesome murder, which was later affirmed by High Court and Supreme Court.
Another important case came before Supreme Court titled as Arumugam Servai v. State of Tamil Nadu, wherein Supreme Court held that Khap Panchayats are totally wrong and illegal. Court further observed that matters of honor killings are barbaric and shameful. Supreme Court therefore directed that these matters were not to be adjudicated by these panchayats, who only acts as kangaroo’s court and take law into their own hands.
CONCLUSION
Despite being into the 20th century and after 70 years of independence, inter caste marriage stigma still exists in our society and people still shame the concept of inter caste marriage. Despite directions being given by the highest court of land, cases of honor and gruesome killings of boy and girl who decided to go for inter caste marriage are common. Not only are they not protected by the society, rather they are shamed by such society.
Therefore, provisions of Special Marriage Act seems not to be doing its work and Indian society is still far from achieving open mindness.