HC quashes certificate of registration of marriage

HC quashes certificate of registration of marriage

03/07/2021

Staff Reporter Madurai

Bringing relief to a young woman from Thoothukudi, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has quashed the certificate of the registration of marriage issued by the Sub-Registrar. The woman had sought the cancellation of the registration.

The woman said that when she was 17 years old, she got acquainted with a 22-year-old man while she was studying in a higher secondary school in 2014. She said that he misled her, took her to a Sub-Registrar office and made her sign some documents. Only later on that she realised that the Sub-Registrar had registered the marriage.

She pointed out that at the relevant point of time she was 17 years and therefore the entire marriage was invalid in the eyes of law. She sent a representation to the District Registrar seeking the cancellation. But it was rejected and she was asked to approach a competent court.

It was said that no formal marriage was conducted and a forged document was submitted before the authorities.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh observed that the two people knew each other. But it was not clear why she had accompanied him to the office of the Registrar and signed the documents. Probably, the petitioner was in her adolescence and did not understand the consequences of a marriage registered before the competent authority.

It is an admitted case that the petitioner was 17-year-old at the time of marriage. Therefore, the so-called marriage itself was invalid in the eyes of law and ought not to have been registered by the Sub-Registrar. No Marriage Certificate was issued and the one produced before the Sub-Registrar was highly doubtful.

The Sub-Registrar has been assigned certain duties under the Tamil Nadu Registration of Marriage Act and it ought to have been confirmed from the priest if any such marriage took place, since both the people were young.

That apart, the age of the petitioner should have been ascertained. If proper care was taken to ascertain the age, the marriage would not have been registered..

Taking into account the fact that the very registration was bad in the eyes of the law, the court quashed the certification of the registration of marriage and held that there was no marriage between the woman and the man.