Govt ignored law panel suggestions
The spurt in “honour killings” might have forced the government to decide amending of the Special Marriage Act to do away with the mandatory one-month notice for registration of civil marriages to ensure that the inter-caste and inter-religious liaisons get prompt legal recognition, ironically it had “ignored” the law commission recommendations in this regard for nearly two years.
The commission had recommended drastic changes in the Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954 to make it a “general law” to regulate marriage and divorce and provide greater legal protection to couples going for the inter-caste and inter-religious relationships. In fact, the growing number of such marriages are emerging as the main reason for the heinous crime of “honour killings”. The government has now proposed to amend ‘Section-5’ of the SMA to do away with the requirement of one-month notice for registration of the civil marriages.
This would facilitate instantaneous registration and allow the marrying couples to attain the status of legally-wed husband and wife.
Most of “honour killing” cases fail because the crime is committed during the gestation period of one-month notice and it becomes very difficult to prove in the court that the marrying couples actually are legally-wed husband and wife.
The commission in its October 2008 report had said “a provision be added to the application clause in the Special Marriage Act that all inter-religious marriages except those within the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain communities, whether solemnised or registered under this Act or not, shall be governed by this Act.”
The law panel had further suggested that definition of “degrees of prohibited relationship” given in Section-2 of the Special Marriage Act should be “omitted” and instead inserted in Section-4, which deals with the marriages to be governed by the personal laws.
Inclusion of this provision in Section-4 of SMA would make a clear distinction between the marriages solemnised under the personal laws and those registered as civil marriages.
“We have a considered opinion that these recommendations, if accepted and implemented, will go a long way in popularising the civil marriages and since all such marriages would be governed by the same law, it will be a mighty step towards translating into action the ideal of uniformity in civil laws, envisaged by Article 44 of the Constitution,” the commission had said.
The law panel even had suggested the removal of word “Special” from the title of the SMA and recommended that the law either be named as “The Marriage Act” or “The Marriage and Divorce Act” to make it as the main law for registration of marriages in the country.
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