Sunday, November 4, 2012

Tying with a common thread

Tying with a common thread

Some wait is imminent to determine what the Union government has to say in the long-awaited law regarding compulsory registration of marriages in the country that continues to be troubled with child marriages and where a wide section of the populace has reservation on according legal status to live-in relationships that they nevertheless enjoy.

However, the government has woken up after six years of a Supreme Court ruling that directed it to enact a uniform law for mandatory registration of all the marriages, regardless of the religion of belief the bride and groom hold.

In other words, an attempt is sought to be made to bring in uniformity in quick fixing two consenting adults of different sexes with the common nuptial cord.


It is believed that the proposed law could prevent child marriages because there will be strict check on minors being forcibly pushed into a relationship that even many adults don’t find it smooth to live with.

With all its benevolent and socially reformative moorings, the major threat that this law can face is from the fundamentalist who are against inter-caste and inter-religion ties in the name of so called ‘honour’.

It has been reported that in many areas, tutored activists keep a close watch on marriages being solemnized in courts. Because a month long notice is mandatory before a couple is allowed to sign the registration document, and their details are also pasted on notice board, it is very simple for caste-oriented and religious fanatics to determine the caste and religion of the unprotected applicants.

The new compulsory registration law hasn’t taken guard against the menace of stifling a like-minded couple who has agreed to forgo respective beliefs and traditions to share the common umbrella.

However, the top court ruling in 2006 says the law to be enacted by the Union government would be placed before it for its approval. That direction may offer a chance to the protagonists of liberating marriages from certain extraneous social and family compulsions to stress that the liberated couples are protected for a reasonable time after they sigh the marriage roll.

This law may have to be revisited if the apex court puts seal on legalizing relationship between gay consenting adults. If their relationship is not an eyesore to the law, there’s no ground to deny them to the pleasure of living the life a ‘husband’ and ‘wife’.

Interestingly, the proposed law has been enacted by amending the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 that provides for regulation of registration of births and deaths in the 1.3 billion population country.

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