Online nuptials can be registered under Special Marriage Act: HC

Online nuptials can be registered under Special Marriage Act: HC

Kochi:07.09.2021

Weddings under the Special Marriage Act can be registered without insisting on physical presence of the parties, the Kerala high court said on Monday.

However, the challenge was identification of both the parties by the marriage officer and one of the options for that was the use of technology like facial recognition or biometrics, the court said. Noting that the court does not have the expertise to work out modalities for use of technology for such matters, a bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Kauser Edappagath impleaded the department of information technology and the ministry of external affairs as parties in the matter.

The bench directed the central government’s lawyer to seek instructions on policies on facial recognition and other data tools for identification of the parties.

The court was hearing a batch of pleas referred to it by a single judge on whether a wedding under the said Act could be solemnised/registered online via video conference without insisting on the physical presence of the bride and the groom.

The single judge, Justice P B Suresh Kumar, was of the view that parties to an intended marriage can certainly be permitted to solemnise it through exchange of words through video conference.

However, he referred the matter to a larger bench as two other judges of the court had ruled that solemnisation of marriages under the said Act via videoconference would dilute the provisions of the Act and that physical presence of both parties was mandatory. Appearing to agree with the view of Justice Kumar and the contentions of the petitioners, the bench on Monday said, “We have no hesitation to hold that a marriage under SMA can be registered without insisting on physical presence of the parties before the marriage officer. However, the marriage officer must be in a position to identify the parties. But the manner in which such identification can be made online is a concern for us.” PTI

‘PHYSICAL PRESENCE NOT MANDATORY’