Supreme Court agrees to list petition seeking implementation of Anand Marriage Act, 1909

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 27

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list for heating a PIL seeking directions to states and union territories to frame rules for registration of Sikh marriages under the AnandMarriage Act, 1909.

“Yes, we will list it,” said a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud after the petitioner’s counsel mentioned it with a request to list it for hearing.

“This Act is concerning a century-old law,” the petitioner’s counsel told the Bench,alluding to theAnand Marriage Act, 1909.

The top court had in November last year issued notice to the Centre, states and union territories on a petition filed by advocate Amanjot Singh Chadha.

The 1909 Act was enacted to give legal sanction to AnandKaraj — marriage ceremony of Sikhs and to remove any doubts regarding their validity.

The Act was amended in 2012 to address the long-standing need for registration of AnandMarriages by allowing Sikh couples an option to register their marriages under the AnandMarriage Act.

Under the 2012 amendment, state governments were supposed to frame rules to facilitate registration of Sikh marriages, contended the petitioner, who had first moved the Uttarakhand High Court on the issue.

He 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 AnandMarriage Act, 1909.

The high court had disposed of the 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, the petitioner alleged that the state government has not implemented the high court’s order. Some states and UTs have already framed rules for registration of Sikh marriages under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, while many of the states have not notified the rules, he contended.

The petitioner submitted that 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 Jammu and Kashmir, Leh and Ladakh, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar, as also the states of Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh in this regard.