Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 2, 2022 at 15:17 IST
The scope of Self-respect marriage has been limited by the Madras High Court, which ruled that it can only be performed between two Hindus.
A Hindu-Christian couple who performed a self-respect marriage and sought to register it under the Special Marriages Act filed a petition, but Justice G. R. Swaminathan rejected it, saying, “The reformist zeal of the legislature stopped with tinkering the institution of Hindu marriage and did not venture beyond.”
The court rejected S Sarath Kumar’s plea for a sub-registrar to be directed to register his marriage under the Special Marriages Act. The petitioner is a Hindu, whereas his wife Lediya is a Christian. They went through what appears to have been a self-respect marriage.
However, the Hindu Marriage Act’s Section 7-A, which deals with such marriages, cannot be applied said the judge.
The court advised the petitioner to solemnise his marriage under the Special Marriage Act by adhering to the recommended processes, saying that the petitioner “may hope to succeed only if he can establish that his marriage was solemnised under the Special Marriage Act.”
Justice Swaminathan explained the procedure to be followed under the Special Marriages Act to solemnise a marriage “According to Section 5 of the Act, the parties to the marriage must give notice of it in a thereof in a prescribed form. The marriage officer shall enter the notices provided under this in the Marriage Notice Book, which shall be open for inspection.”
“That is how the news about the proposed marriage between 72-year-old ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy and 27-year-old Maniyammai became known because someone came across the notice of intended marriage given by them.” The wife of Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, is 25 years younger than him. Age is just a number for such illustrious couples, “said Justice Swaminathan.