Guj bid to change marriage registration rules violates adults’ rights 

Gujarat govt’s dubious, to say the least, proposal to amend marriage registration rules says a married couple must provide a declaration that “parents were informed” of their marriage. That will, of course, give parents the power to block a marriage registration. Did govt ask whether this is constitutional, especially since all govts are led by constitutional post-holders, in this case a CM? The reported trigger for the proposal is demands from Patidars and Thakors, because “girls are running away”. It is such regressive ideas – that girls asserting their right to marry their choice is dishonourable – that legislators need to counter. So, when the demand was raised, it was for BJP govt to say no. Instead, govt and legislature prepared to cast this regressive idea in stone, even though it will be found to be in conflict with constitutional safeguards of Article 21. 

Marriage registration is mandatory. Without registration, the marriage isn’t void, but a couple does not have official marital status needed for govt records, IDs (passports/visas), inheritance, financial nominations, joint accounts…name any document. If this rule is allowed, consenting married adults will face untold persecution by the state. The target here is what toxic tradition calls “love marriage”. That’s a short descriptor for marriages outside rigid caste/community boundaries. But inter-caste marriages are barely 5% across India, more among rural and low-income groups, per NCAER. Inter-faith marriages, weaponised as the political project of “love jihad”, are too few as well. The numbers, though, are not the point. What is is that the freedom of an adult to marry a person of their choice, and the couple’s right to live legally and freely, is a constitutional guarantee. That’s what central BJP leadership must consider and that’s why it should tell Gujarat govt to withdraw the proposal.

END OF ARTICLE