State Marriage Act in conflict with Christian Act
SHILLONG: Pastors have exposed the conflict between the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act, 2012, and the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, by saying those who registered their marriages under the Christian Act are forced to register again under the State Act.
The pastors have asked the government to amend the State Act by exempting members of the Christian community contracting marriages under the Christian Marriage Act, 1872, which is a Central Act.
They also extended their support to the three pastors who had filed a writ petition in the High Court of Meghalaya challenging the State Act.
A meeting of the pastors from Ri Bhoi Synod, KJP Synod Mihngi and KJP Synod Sepngi was held here on Tuesday to discuss the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act, 2012, and the Amendment Act, 2015.
The members, while expressing their unhappiness over the State Law, said the Church from the time the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, came into force, has been consciously and diligently following the tenets and mandates of the Act.
“All marriages solemnised under the 1872 Act are registered by the pastors who are at the same time the marriage license holders and there is no such marriages solemnised under the Act of 1872 which were not registered,” Rev. J.M Nongpluh, convener of the meeting, said.
According to the pastors, strangely the state government without considering the sentiments of those professing the Christian faith had taken away the right of the Church to follow the 1872 Act.
“The action of the State to bring the new law has brought immeasurable difficulty to the people living in remote areas and professing the Christian faith. The State Act has also diluted or made less important the marriages contracted and solemnised by pastors under the Central Act on the ground that contracting parties will have to get themselves registered again under the State Act soon after marriage,” the statement said.
According to senior lawyer VKG Kynta, the State Legislature can always bring an amendment to the State Act irrespective of the pendency of the writ petition before the High Court as there were many legislations made in the past during the pendency of litigations.
He added that though the state government is relying on a Supreme Court case of 2006, the apex court had highlighted that there is compulsory registration of marriages under the Christian Marriage Act as entries are made in the marriage register of the church concerned with the signatures of the bride and the bridegroom in the presence of the officiating priest and the witnesses soon after the marriage ceremony.
