From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court ruling to comply with the provisions of the Special Marriage Act while solemnising Arya Samaj marriages, debarring issue of marriage certificate by the temple heads except by the competent authority under the Act.
A bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy stayed the High Court order and issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh government and other respondents on a petition filed by the Madhya Bharat Arya Pratinidhi Sabha.
The petitioner society has challenged the order of the division bench of the High Court on October 8, 2021, upholding a single judge’s judgment on 09.12.2020, that the petitioner has to comply with the provisions of the Special Marriage Act, 1954, while solemnizing the Arya Samaj marriages.
According to the petition, the society was constituted in the year 1951 and is the nodal society, having jurisdiction over all Arya Samaj Mandir affiliated to it in Madhya Pradesh. It justified the marriage certificates issued by its temple heads as a legal document.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan and lawyer Vanshaja Shukla, representing the Madhya Bharat Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, have submitted that the High Court has committed an error in transgressing into the domain of Legislature, by in effect directing that Arya Samaj marriages conducted by the Arya Samaj Temples under the jurisdiction of the Petitioner Society in MP have to solemnize the said marriages in consonance of the provisions of the Special Marriage Act.
“That neither the Arya Marriage Act nor the Hindu Marriage Act provides any prerequisite conditions similar to Sections 5 to 8 of the Special Marriage Act, for solemnizing marriage between two Arya Samajists,” said the petitioner.
“Thus, the High Court has wrongly directed that the Arya Samaj Temples should solemnize the marriages after complying with the provisions of Sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the Special Marriage Act, which provide for prerequisite conditions viz, a notice of intended marriage, publication of the notice, marriage notebook, objection to the marriage and the procedure,” added the petitioner.
It said that the judgment of Madhya Pradesh HC can set a bad precedent for all the marriages conducted by the Arya Samaj society across India and abroad.
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