Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 15, 2022 at 22:04 IST
Under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution, a public interest litigation has been brought before the Supreme Court asking the court to require the state governments to create regulations for the Registration of Sikh Marriages under the Anand Marriage Act of 1909.
Before the High Court of Uttarakhand, the petitioner had submitted a writ petition for the creation of the regulations.
The matter was finally disposed of by the high court by an order dated 23rd March, 2021 with a direction of the Chief Secretary of the State of Uttarakhand “to take appropriate steps for putting the aforesaid proposal before the cabinet and after approval of the cabinet also take steps for publishing the same in the gazette and place it before the legislative assembly.”
The petition said that while many States and union territories had previously drafted the regulations for the Anand Marriage Act of 1909’s registration of Sikh marriages, these rules had not yet been published as required by Section 6 of the Anand Marriage Act, 1909.
The petition filed by petitioner advocate Aman Jot Singh Chadha submitted that, “India being a secular democracy has to upload and respect the religious practices of its citizens.”
“Anand Marriage Act, 0909 was enacted by the imperial legislative council over more than a century ago to give legal sanction to a marriage ceremony among Sikhs known as Anand Karaj and also to remove any doubts, which may be cast as to their validity.”
It was pointed out that, apart from the State of Uttarakhand, various other States and Union Territories have also failed to notify the rules despite representation.
The petition stated that, “Aggrieved by the non-implementation of the central act in the respondent states and UTs and no framework for registration and certification of Anand Marriages, the petitioner approached this court.”
The petitioner has prayed in the petition to issue writ, order, or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to notify the rules under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909 in the country as impetuously as possible in the interest of justice.