Inter Religion Marriages Special Marriage Act 1954

Legal Procedure for Inter-Faith Marriages in India?

Personal Laws –

• Marriage, divorce, maintenance, succession, minority, and guardianship, etc.
• most of the Personal laws in India find their roots in  scriptural laws and are religion based.
• E.g. Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956,

Hindu Marriage Act 1955,

• The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, enacted in 1936
• The Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, enacted during 1939
• The Special Marriage Act, enacted during 1954
• The Special Marriage Act, enacted during 1954
• An Act to provide a special form of marriage in certain cases, for the registration of such and certain other marriages and for divorce.
•  When the boy and the girl intending to marry belong to different religions, their marriage can be legally solemnised under SMA.
• The Act also allows the Registration of Marriage in such cases where the couple has already entered into a wedlock by following religious rituals of one religion.

Section 4- Conditions relating to solemnization of special marriages

• (a) neither party has a spouse living;
• (b) neither party― (i) is incapable of giving a valid consent to it in consequence of unsoundness of mind
• (iii) has been subject to recurrent attacks of insanity
• (c) the male has completed the age of twenty-one years and the female the age of eighteen years.
• (d) the parties are not within the degrees of prohibited relationship

5. Notice of intended marriage.―

• When a marriage is intended to be solemnized under this Act, the parties to the marriage shall give notice thereof in writing in the form specified in the Second Schedule to the Marriage Officer of the district in which at least one of the parties to the marriage has resided for a period of not less than thirty days immediately preceding the date on which such notice is given.
• (1) Any person may, before the expiration of thirty days from the date on which any such notice has been published under sub-section (2) of section 6, object to the marriage on the ground that it would contravene one or more of the conditions specified in section 4

8. Procedure on receipt of Objection.―

• (1) If an objection is made under section 7 to an intended marriage, the Marriage Officer shall inquire into the matter of the objection within thirty days from the date of the objection
• If he is satisfied that Objection ought not to prevent the solemnization of the marriage then only he will solemnize the marriage.
• (2) If the Marriage Officer upholds the objection and refuses to solemnize the marriage, either party to the intended marriage may, within a period of thirty days from the date of such refusal, prefer an appeal to the district court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the Marriage Officer has his office, and
• the decision of the district court on such appeal shall be final, and the Marriage Officer shall act in conformity with the decision of the court.

12. Place and form of solemnization.―

• (1) The marriage may be solemnized at the office of the Marriage Officer,  and on the payment of such fees  prescribed.
• (2) The marriage shall not be complete and binding on the parties unless each party says to the other in the presence of the Marriage Officer and the three witnesses and in any language understood by the parties,―“I, (A), take the (B), to be my lawful wife (or husband)”.

13. Certificate of marriage.―

• (1) When the marriage has been solemnized, the Marriage Officer shall enter a certificate in a book to be kept by him for that purpose – called the Marriage Certificate Book and such certificate shall be signed by the parties to the marriage and the three witnesses.
• (2) the Certificate shall be deemed to be conclusive evidence of the fact that a marriage under this Act has been solemnized.

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