Remove Notice Period for Interfaith Marriage

by Dhanak of Humanity | May 3, 2019 | Dhanak

Plea in Delhi High Court

अभी तो ली अंगड़ाई है आगे और लड़ाई है….
A big step in the making of a modern, secular, democratic India

Today, we celebrate a small but extremely important victory in doing away with the 30-day notice period that is mandatory to register interfaith marriages.

A Muslim woman through our NGO DHANAK has questioned before the Delhi High Court the validity of a 30-day notice period.

For those who are not aware of the issues with the thirty day notice period – states post public notices of a couple’s intent to get married to basically invite objections by anyone. Many states also send out notices to the residences of the couple. Listed below are the arguments put forth –

* This is essentially breach of privacy of the persons applying for marriage and also jeopardizes their life and liberty.

* By waiting for people to come and object to the marriage, the public notice in itself is a presumption of wrongdoing by the applicants.

* The procedural tediousness forces couples to adopt alternate measure of marrying in a religious place of worship or converting to another religion to marry.

* It discourages couples from registering their marriage altogether because marriages outside the purview of the Act remain valid even without registration.

The state and central government will submit their responses in July, 2019. Click this link to read the article in the Times of India.

Stay tuned to hear what lies ahead in our struggle!