Marriage certificate has no significance in Hindu wedding without rituals: Allahabad High Court

Lucknow: In a significant judgement, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has said that a marriage certificate has no significance in a Hindu marriage if it has been solmenised without following the rituals.

A division bench comprising Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla delivered the judgement on a petition filed by a woman challenging the decision of a family court, which had accepted the marriage certificate as proof of valid marriage.

The High Court declared the marriage void as the rituals were not performed in the marriage.

The petitioner had contended that she and her mother were followers of a ‘dharma guru’ (religious leader) and that the latter had got them to sign some blank papers saying that he wanted them to become regular members of his religious institution.

She further said in her petition that the ‘dharma guru’ later informed her father that he (guru) had married his daughter at an ‘Arya Samaj’ Temple and also that the marriage had been registered.

The petitioner then approached the family court seeking that the marriage be declared void as she had been tricked into signing the papers. The respondent, however, contested the claim and filed an application seeking restitution of his conjugal rights.

The family court rejected the woman’s application but accepted the application of the ‘dharma guru’.

The woman then challenged the family court’s decision in the high court. The court, in it's judgement, said that the onus to prove that the marriage was solemnised in accordance with the Hindu traditions was on the 'dharma guru' but he failed to do so and hence the marriage was 'void'.

It said that the marriage certificate issued by the Arya Samaj temple was of of no significance in the absence of the rituals in the marriage.