The Law Commission has recommended the need for a law regarding marriages.
What are the recommendations?
The new law should make the registration of marriages compulsory.
An all-India framework under which all marriages can be registered regardless of the different customs and traditions should be created.
The marriages can be registered under any of the prevailing marriage acts.
Registrar who is responsible for the registration of births and deaths shall be responsible for the registration of marriages as well.
The production of a marriage certificate should be made mandatory for anyone applying for any benefit on behalf of the spouse and for getting benefits of any welfare schemes like agricultural and education loans.
It called for the creation of a centralised national portal.
The availability of forms and documents in regional languages must be ensured to make the portal easily accessible to all citizens.
What is the rationale behind the move?
Earlier this year, the Department of Legal Affairs forwarded a request for ways to end the continued prevalence of practices such as child marriages, bigamy and gender violence in Indian society.
These recommendations are given as a response to that request.
It recognized the complexity of personal laws but said the compulsory registration is only aimed as a “procedural change” to protect hapless women from fraudulent and illegal marriages.
It would supplement the domain of family laws that already exist.
