“All religions are designed to teach us how to live, joyfully, serenely and kindly in the midst of serenely and kindly in the midst of suffering.”
In India, marriage is governed by the personal law of religion a person follows. In India, most marriages are still arranged by the family within the same religion and caste. But there are some couples who do fall in love, sometimes choosing their own partner from a different faith. Now the more orthodox part government is making it hard for them. Marriage between different castes and religions is frowned upon in India. To maintain the rigid power system that is still in place in the country people are expected to marry within their clans, classes, and religion. Additionally for a marriage to be legally recognized and registered certain customs and ceremonies specific to each religion and caste must be observed. In cases where customs are involved people belonging to different religious groups, family the state government can make rules governing those customs. To save guard the rights of the people who defy social norms and prefer to marry outside the cast or religion special Marriage Act 1954 was created. This provides a special style of marriage for citizens of India and Indian nationals living in abroad regardless of caste and religion.
To get married under this Special marriage or Inter-religious marriage you need to know if you and your spouse are legally eligible to get married for example you should be of a certain age to be able to get married and you can not have another living spouse from whom you have not been a divorce. To perform a marriage under a special act the couple must give notice in writing to the Marriage office of the district in which at least one of them has lived for at least 30 days immediately before the date of the notice. There is no specific form or essential ceremony to solemnize Special Marriage Act still there are two possibilities when the spouse does not want a religious ceremony the parties can choose not to perform any religious ceremony and merely register their marriage before the marriage office.
- You can decide how to perform the marriage but you and your spouse have to say the following to each other [I i.e your name] take thee [ your spouse’s name ] to be my lawful [ husband /wife ] this has been done in front of the marriage office and 3 witnesses.
- When you and your spouse want a religious ceremony for your wedding you can perform any religious ceremony according to personal law and then register your marriage under the Special Marriage Act. There is one condition you and your spouse should have been living as husband and wife from the date of the ceremony until the date of registration.
A marriage that has been registered under the act by the marriage officer will be entered into the marriage certificate book and will be deemed to be a legal marriage under the act all children born from the date of the ceremony will also be considered legal children. As taught in LLB college in Kolkata and law colleges admission in West Bengal that the law which governs interfaith marriages in the country the Special Marriage Act 1954 has been challenged for endangering the lives of young couples who seek refugee under it. More than a year after the writ petition was moved before the supreme court seeking the down of several of its provisions the government is yet to submit its response. In order to facilitate inter-caste and inter-religion marriage in which neither party had to renounce their religion in order to wed the other special Marriage Act was established. While maintaining their religious affiliations they can still register. This law applies to marriage between Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jain, and Buddhists. It applies to every Indian whether they are living in India or overseas with the exception of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. There is a regular procedure for marriage regardless of your religion rather than a special court for marriage between persons of different religions.
