Supreme Law News

Is virtual marriage Legal in India?

In this era of digital world, a court was faced with the issue of marriage in air or say virtual marriage. To find answer to this new era new tech questions, the court referred to old Hindu time and borrowed instances from Ramanaya's days to reach to the solution.

Here, in this case, the Writ Petition was filed praying to direct the respondent to solemnize the marriage of the petitioner with the bridegroom through video conference and register the same under Special Marriage Act, 1954.

The Madras High Court observed that “the parties do not propose to conduct proxy marriage. The bridegroom will be very much present. The only distinguishing feature will be his presence being virtual and not physical. Section 12 of the Act does not exclude virtual presence.

Here is a case where the parties submitted a joint application in person and again appeared in person before the respondent after the expiry of the mandatory period of 30 days. If the respondent had taken steps right then, the present situation would not have arisen at all.”

The bench stated that Right to marry is a fundamental human right. Sections 12 and 13 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 should be so construed as to effectuate this right. Section 12 (2) of the Act states that the marriage may be solemnized in any form which the parties may choose to adopt. In this case, the parties have chosen the online mode.

Referring to old Ramayana time, it ruled that, if the golden statue of Sita can be a substitute for her physical presence, then why can’t marriage be registered through virtual appearance. The bench of Justice G.R. Swaminathan stated that

“There came a time when Rama was going to perform a huge sacrifice, such as the old kings used to celebrate. But no ceremony in India can be performed by a married man without his wife. So, as a substitute, a golden statue of Sita was made, in order that the ceremony could be accomplished.”

The Court also quoted Swami Vivekananda’s lecture delivered at the Shakespeare club, California on 31.01.1900:

“There came a time when Rama was going to perform a huge sacrifice, or yajna, such as the old kings used to celebrate. But no ceremony in India can be performed by a married man without his wife ; he must have the wife with him, the sahadharmini, the “co-religionist” – that is the expression for a wife. The Hindu householder has to perform hundreds of ceremonies but not one can be duly performed according to the shastras, if he has not a wife to complement it with her part in it. Now Rama’s wife was not with him then, as she had been banished. So, the people asked him to marry again. But at this request Rama for the first time in his life stood against the people. He said, “this cannot be. My life is Sita’s”. So, as a substitute, a golden statue of Sita was made, in order that the ceremony could be accomplished”.

In view of the above, High Court allowed the appeal and held that there is no legal impediment whatsoever for solemnizing the marriage. #marriage #regitrationofmarriage #virtualregistration #hindumarraigeact #hindulaw #Ram #sita #Ramayana #swamivivekananda Arushi Wadhwa Ajay Kumar Anuradha Tiwari Aditi Anand Binoy Prabhakar Paul Mundadan Poonam Vijay Thakkar Chandrra Shekharr Sundriyal Dr Usha Roopnarain- Former MP in the National Assembly RSA Dr. Shelly Batra Dr. G. K. Goswami Devan Bhalla

Dr. Ajay Kummar Pandey

( LLM, MBA, (UK), PhD, AIMA, AFAI, PHD Chamber, ICTC, PCI, FCC, DFC, PPL, MNP, BNI, ICJ (UK), WP, (UK), MLE, Harvard Square, London, CT, Blair Singer Institute, (USA), Dip. in International Crime, Leiden University, the Netherlands )

Advocate & Consultant, Supreme Court of India & High Courts

4C Supreme Law International, Delhi, NCR. Mumbai & Dubai

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