HC invalidates marriage, pulls up sub-registrar

HC invalidates marriage, pulls up sub-registrar

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:3.7.2021 

Charging a sub-registrar for registering a marriage without verifying the documents, the Madras high court has cancelled the marriage certificate on the ground that the wedding was invalid in the eye of law as the girl was only 17 years old at the time of registration in 2017.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh was hearing a petition filed by the woman from Tuticorin district, seeking to cancel the marriage certificate. The petitioner claimed that she was misled by a 22-year-old man who took her to the sub-registrar office on August 8, 2017 and made her sign in certain documents. It was only later she came to know that the man had registered the marriage. When she approached the authorities to cancel the marriage certificate, it was rejected.

The judge said that it is clear from the facts that the petitioner and the man were known to each other. However, it is not clear as to why she accompanied the man to the subregistrar office and signed in certain documents.

The judge took note of the submission by the parish priest that no marriage certificate was issued by him. Observing that there is a very serious doubt as to whether any marriage took place between the petitioner and the man, the judge said that the sub-registrar ought to have confirmed with the priest, since both the petitioner and the man were very young.

“The sub-registrar failed in his duty by not scrutinizing the documents and ascertaining the age of the petitioner and the registration has taken place in a mechanical fashion. Unfortunately, the registration of the marriage is now standing in the way of the petitioner and it will very seriously affect her future prospects,” observed the judge.

Taking into consideration the fact that the very registration of marriage is bad in the eyes of law, the judge quashed the marriage certificate.