Marriage Bill

3.

National

Commission

for

Women

Draft

On

THE

COMPULSORY REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES BILL, 2005 Statement of object and reasons

The commission has since its inception supported the need for registration of marriages as the Commission felt that for women, registration of marriages is a critical issue and will help :1) 2) 3) 4) 5) to prevent child marriages and to ensure minimum age of marriage To prevent polygamy, unless the same is permitted under any law or custom To ensure that prior wives get notice of intended marriage; Enable the married women including the women married to NRI/ foreigners to claim her right to shelter and maintenance Prevent the practice where men desert women after performing the marriage including act as a deterrent to the practice of selling daughters to any person including a foreigner, under the garb of marriage As there is no compulsion for registration of marriage, it is necessary that the Central Government should make a provision to register all the marriages that have taken place in their States/UTs or elsewhere. Hence all marriages, in whatever form they are performed should be registered to save women from harassment and hence the desirability to have such a law for registration of marriages.

Non registration of marriage affect women the most. Women most prominently victims of bigamous relationships and property disputes face enormous hardship in establishing their marriage as they have no proof of marriage. It has been seen in a number of cases of bigamy that the wives are losing their cases by reason of their failure to prove the first or second marriage of their husbands. The Central Government has made it mandatory for all States to make compulsory birth registration and also asked to legislate for compulsory registration of marriages. The reasoning is that the States are in a better position to know the social structure and local conditions prevailing in the respective states. Then applying the logic for mandatory...