SC asks states, UTs to notify rules for registration of Sikh 'Anand Karaj' marriage

The Supreme Court has directed several states and union territories to notify within four months the rules for registering ‘Anand Karaj’ or the Sikh wedding ceremony.

The apex court said that in a secular framework, which respects religious identity and ensures civic equality, the law must provide a neutral and workable route by which marriages through ‘Anand Karaj’ are recorded and certified on the same footing as other marriages.

"The fidelity of a constitutional promise is measured not only by the rights it proclaims, but by the institutions that make those rights usable. In a secular republic, the state must not turn a citizen's faith into either a privilege or a handicap," a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said.

In its September 4 order, the bench said when the law recognises ‘Anand Karaj’ as a valid form of marriage yet leaves no machinery to register it, the “promise was only half kept”.

"What remains is to ensure that the route from rites to record is open, uniform and fair," it said.

The top court passed the order on a plea seeking directions to various states and UTs to frame and notify rules under Section 6 of the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, (as amended in 2012) to facilitate registration of marriages solemnised by the Sikh rite commonly known as ‘Anand Karaj’.

The bench noted that the 1909 Act was enacted to recognise the validity of marriages performed by the Sikh ceremony of ‘Anand Karaj’.