Frame rules for registration of Sikh marriages: PIL in Supreme Court

New Delhi, September 15

A PIL in the Supreme Court has sought directions to states and union territories to frame rules for registration of Sikh marriages under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909.

Act amended in ’12

Under the 2012 amended Anand Marriage Act, state governments were supposed to frame rules to facilitate registration of Sikh marriages, contended petitioner Amanjot Singh Chadha, An advocate.

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The Act was enacted to give legal sanction to Anand Karaj — marriage ceremony of Sikhs — and to remove any doubts regarding its validity. The Act was amended in 2012 to address the long-standing need for registration of marriages by allowing Sikh couples an option to register their marriages under the Anand Marriage Act.

Under the 2012 amendment, state governments were supposed to frame rules to facilitate registration of Sikh marriages, contended petitioner Amanjot Singh Chadha — an advocate from Uttarakhand.

Chadha, who had first moved the Uttarakhand High Court on the issue, alleged that state governments and its functionaries were violating the fundamental rights of citizens under Articles 14, 19, 21, 25, 26 and 29 of the Constitution as they failed to frame and notify the rules mandated under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909.

The High Court had disposed of Chadha’s petition with a direction to the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary to take appropriate steps for putting the aforesaid proposal before the cabinet and after approval of the cabinet also to take steps for publishing the same in the gazette and place it before the Legislative Assembly.

However, Chadha alleged that the state government had not implemented the High Court order. Some states and UTs had already framed rules for the registration of Sikh marriages under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, while many had not notified the rules, he contended.

Chadha said he made representations to the governments of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Gujrat, Bihar, Maharashtra and Telangana and the UT of J&K, Leh and Ladakh, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar, as also the states of Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh in April in this regard.