HC issues notice to UT Admn

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a notice of motion to the Chandigarh Administration on a petition seeking direction for framing or notifying rules for facilitating marriage registration of Sikhs under the Anand Marriage Act amended by the Parliament in 2012.

In his petition placed before the Bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, Navratan Singh asserted that he intended to get his marriage registered under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909.

He asserted that an amendment was made in 2012 for meeting a long-standing demand for registration of Anand marriages as an option for Sikhs. Elaborating, he said the Central Government made a provision under the old Act through an amendment.

It added Section 6 to the Act, thereby introducing a provision for registration of marriages performed by the Sikhs by a religious ceremony known as “Anand Karaj”.

After the amendment, the states had to formulate rules in order to facilitate the registration of Sikh marriages under the AMA. Information sought under the RTI Act from the entire country revealed that only Haryana had introduced the rules. No other state in India introduced any rules for the facilitation of marriages of Sikhs under the Anand Marriage Act.

The petitioner added his father, advocate Navkiran Singh, upon verification from the respondent’s office came to know that the Chandigarh Administration was sleeping over the matter. He sent a legal notice to the respondent for framing of the rules under the Anand Marriage Act. The legal notice did not evoke any response and the respondent, for the reasons best known to them, did not care to speed up the process for formulating the rules.