This Act may be called the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872.
1[It extends to the whole of India 2[except 3[the territories which, immediately before the 1st. November, 1956, were comprised in the States] of Travancore-Cochin, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir].]4
5[***]
In this Act unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,-
"Church of England" and "Anglican" mean and apply to the Church of England as by law established;
"Church of Scotland" means the Church of Scotland as by law established;
"Church of Rome" and" "Roman Catholic" means and apply to the Church which regards the Pope of Rome as its spiritual head;
"Church" includes any chapel or other building generally used for public Christian worship;
6["India" means the 7[territories} to which this Act extends;]
"minor" means a person who has not completed the age of twenty-one years and who is not a widower or a window;
8[***]
the expression "Christians" means persons professing the Christian religion;
9[and the expression "Indian Christians" includes the Christian descendants of natives of India converted to Christianity, as well as such converts;]
10["Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages" means a Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages appointed under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1886.]
Every marriage between persons, one or both of whom is 11[or are] a Christian or Christians, shall be solemnized in accordance with the provisions of the next following section; and any such marriage solemnized otherwise than in accordance with such provisions shall be void.
Marriages may be solemnized in 12[India]-
(1) by any person who has received episcopal ordination, provided that the marriage be solemnized according to the rules, rites, ceremonies and customs of the Church of which he is a Minister;
(2) by any Clergyman of the Church of Scotland, provided that such marriage be solemnized according to the rules, rites, ceremonies and customs of the Church of Scotland;
(3) by any Minister of Religion licensed under this Act to solemnize marriages;
(4) by, or in the presence of, a Marriage Registrar appointed under this Act;
(5) by any person licensed under this Act to grant certificates of marriage between 13[Indian] Christians.
The State Government, so far as regards the territories under its administration, 15[***] may, by notification in the Official Gazette 16[***], grant licenses to Ministers of Religion to solemnize marriages within such territories 17[***] and may, by a like notification, revoke such licenses.]
The State Government may appoint one or more Christians, either by name or as holding any office for the time being, to be the Marriage Registrar or Marriage Registrars for any district subject to its administration.
Where there are more Marriage Registrars than one in any district, the State Government shall appoint one of them to be the Senior Marriage Registrar.
When there is only one Marriage Registrar in a district, and such Registrar is absent from such district, or ill, or when his office is temporarily vacant, the Magistrate of the district shall act as, and be, Marriage Registrar thereof during such absence, illness, or temporary vacancy.
The State Government 18[***] may grant a license to any Christian, either by name or as holding any office for the time being, authorizing him to grant certificates of marriage between 13[Indian] Christians.
Any such license may be revoked by the authority by which it was granted, and every such grant or revocation shall be notified in the Official Gazette.
Every marriage under this Act shall be solemnized between the hours of six in the morning and seven in the evening :
Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to-
(1) A Clergyman of the Church of England solemnizing a marriage under a special license permitting him to do so at any hour other than between six in the morning and seven in the evening, under the hand and seal of the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese or his Commissary, or
(2) a Clergyman of the Church of Rome solemnizing a marriage between the hours of seven in the evening and six in the morning, when he has received a general or special license in that behalf from the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese or Vicariate in which such marriage is so solemnized or from such person as the same Bishop has authorised to grant such license, 19[or
(3) a Clergyman of the Church of Scotland solemnizing a marriage according to the rules, rites, ceremonies and customs of the Church of Scotland].
No Clergyman of the Church of England shall solemnize a marriage in any place other than a church 20[where worship is generally held according to the forms of the Church of England],
unless there is no 20[such] church within five miles distance by the shortest road from such place, or
unless he has received a special licence authorizing him to do so under the hand and seal of the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese or his Commissary.
For such special license, the Registrar of the Diocese may charge such additional fee as he said Bishop from time to time authorizes.
Whenever a marriage is intended to be solemnized by a Minister of Religion licensed to solemnize marriages under this Act-
One of the persons intending marriage shall give notice in writing, according to the form contained in the First Schedule hereto annexed, or to the like effect, to the Minister of Religion whom he or she desires to solemnize the marriage, and shall state therein-
(a) the name and surname, and the profession or condition, of each of the persons intending marriage,
(b) the dwelling-place of each of them,
(c) the time during which each has dwelt there, and
(d) the church or private dwelling in which the marriage is to be solemnized :
Provided that, if either of such persons has dwelt in the place mentioned in the notice during more than one month, it may be stated therein that he or she has dwelt there one month and upwards.
If the persons intending marriage desire it to be solemnized in a particular church, and if the Minister of Religion to whom such notice has been delivered be entitled to officiate therein, he shall cause the notice to be affixed in some conspicuous part of such church.
But if he is not entitled to officiate as a Minister in such church, he shall, at his option, either return the notice to the person who delivered it to him, or deliver it to some other Minister entitled to officiate therein, who shall thereupon cause the notice to be affixed as aforesaid.
If it be intended that the marriage shall be solemnized in a private dwelling, the Minister of Religion, on receiving the notice prescribed in section 12, shall forward it to the Marriage Registrar of the district, who shall affix the same to some conspicuous place in his own office.
When one of the persons intending marriage is a minor, every Minister receiving such notice shall, unless within twenty-four hours after its receipt he returns the same under the provisions of section 13, send by the post or otherwise a copy of such notice to the Marriage Registrar of the district, or, if there be more than one Registrar of such district, to the Senior Marriage Registrar.
The Marriage Registrar or Senior Marriage Registrar, as he case may be, on receiving any such notice, shall affix it to some conspicuous place in his own office, and the latter shall further cause a copy of the said notice to be sent to each of the other Marriage Registrars in the same district, who shall likewise publish the same in the manner above directed.
Any Minister of Religion consenting or intending to solemnize any such marriage as aforesaid, shall, on being required so to do by or on behalf of the person by whom the notice was given, and upon one of the persons intending marriage making the declaration hereinafter required, issue under his hand a certificate of such notice having been given and of such declaration having been made :
Provided-
(1) that no such certificate shall be issued until the expiration of four days after the date of the receipt of the notice by such Minister;
(2) that no lawful impediment be shown to his satisfaction why such certificate should not issue; and
(3) that the issue of such certificate has not been forbidden, in manner hereinafter mentioned, by any person authorized in that behalf.
The certificate mentioned in section 17 shall not be issued until one of the persons intending marriage has appeared personally before the Minister and made a solemn declaration-
(a) that he or she believes that there is not any impediment of kindred or affinity, or other lawful hindrance, to the said marriage,
and when either or both of the parties is or are a minor or minors.
(b) that the consent or consents required by law has or have been obtained thereto, or that there is no person resident in India having authority to give such consent, as the case may be.
The father, if living, of any minor or, if the father be dead, the guardian of the person of such minor, and, in case there be no such guardian, then the mother of such minor, may give consent to the minor's marriage,
and such consent is hereby required for the same marriage, unless no person authorized to give such consent be resident in India.
Every person whose consent to a marriage is required under section 19, is hereby authorized to prohibit the issue of he certificate by any Minister, at any time before the issue of the same, by notice in writing to such Minister, subscribed by the person so authorized with his or her name and place of abode and position with respect to either of the persons intending marriage, by reason of which he or she is so authorized as aforesaid.
If any such notice be received by such Minister, he shall not issue his certificate and shall not solemnize the said marriage until he has examined into the matter of the said prohibition, and is satisfied that the person prohibiting the marriage has no lawful authority for such prohibition,
or until the said notice is withdrawn by the person who gave it.
When either of the persons intending marriage is a minor, and the Minister is not satisfied that the consent of the consent of the person whose consent to such marriage is required by section 19 has been obtained, such Minister shall not issue such certificate until the expiration of fourteen days after the receipt by him of the notice of marriage.
When any 13[Indian] Christian about to be married takes a notice of marriage to a Minister of Religion, or applies for a certificate from such Minister under section 17, such Minister shall, before issuing the certificate, ascertain
whether such 13[Indian] Christian is cognizant of the purport and effect of the said notice or certificate, as the case may be, and, if not, shall translate or cause to be translated the notice or certificate to such 13[Indian] Christian into some language which he understands.
The certificate to be issued by such Minister shall be in the form contained in the Second Schedule hereto annexed, or to the like effect.
After the issue of the certificate by the Minister, marriage may be solemnized between the persons therein described according to such form or ceremony as the Minister thinks fit to adopt :
Provided that the marriage be solemnized in the presence of at least two witnesses besides the Minister.
Whenever a marriage is not solemnized within two months after the date of the certificate issued by such Minister as aforesaid, such certificate and all proceedings (if any) thereon shall be void,
and no person shall proceed to solemnize the said marriage until new notice has been given and a certificate thereof issued in manner aforesaid.
All marriages hereafter solemnized in 12[India] between persons one or both of whom professes or profess the Christian religion, except marriages solemnized under Part V or Part VI of this Act, shall be registered21 in manner hereinafter prescribed.
Every Clergyman of the Church of England shall keep a register of marriages and shall register therein, according to the tabular form set forth in the Third Schedule hereto annexed, every marriage which he solemnizes under this Act.
Every Clergyman of the Church of England shall send four times in every year returns in duplicate, authenticated by his signature, of the entries in the register of marriages solemnized at any place where he has any spiritual charge, to the Registrar of the Archdeaconry to which he is subject, or within the limits of which such place is situate.
Such quarterly returns shall contain all the entries of marriages contained in the said register from the first day of January to the thirty-first day of March, from the first day of April to the thirtieth day of June, from the first day of July to the thirtieth day of September, and from the first day of October to the thirty first day of December, of each year, respectively, and shall be sent by such Clergyman within two weeks from the expiration of each of the quarters above specified.
The said Registrar upon receiving the said returns shall send one copy thereof to the 22[registrar General of a Births, Deaths and Marriages].
Every marriage solemnized by a Clergyman of the Church of Rome shall be registered by the person and according to the form directed in that behalf by the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese or Vicariate in which such marriage is solemnized,
And such person shall forward quarterly to the 23[Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages] returns of the entries of all marriages registered by him during the three months next preceding.
Every Clergyman of the Church of Scotland shall keep a register of marriages,
and shall register therein, according to the tabular form set forth in the Third Schedule hereto annexed, every marriage which he solemnizes under this Act,
and shall forward quarterly to the 23[Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages], through the Senior Chaplain of the Church of Scotland, returns, similar to those prescribed in section 29, of all such marriages
Every marriage solemnized by any person who has received episcopal ordination, but who is not a Clergyman of the Church of England, or of the Church of Rome, or by any Minister of Religion licensed under this Act to solemnize marriages, shall immediately after the solemnization thereof, be registered in duplicate by the person solemnizing the same; (that is to say) in a marriage-register-book to be kept by him for the purpose, according to the form contained in the Fourth Schedule hereto annexed, and also in a certificate attached to the marriage-register-book as a counterfoil.
The entry of such marriage in both the certificate and marriage-register-book shall be signed by the person solemnizing the marriage, and also by the persons married, and shall be attested by two credible witnesses, other than the person solemnizing the marriage, present at its solemnization.
Every such entry shall be made in order from the beginning to the end of the book, and the number of the certificate shall correspond with that of the entry in the marriage-register-book.
The person solemnizing the marriage shall forthwith separate the certificate from the marriage-register-book and send it, within one month from the time of the solemnization, to the Marriage Registrar of the district in which the marriage was solemnized, or, if there be more Marriage Registrars than one, to the Senior Marriage Registrar,
who shall cause such certificate to be copied into a book to be kept by him for that purpose,
and shall send all the certificates which he has received during the month, with such number and signature or initials added thereto as are hereinafter required, to the 23[Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages].
Such copies shall be entered in order from the beginning to the end of the said book, and shall bear both the number of the certificate as copied, and also a number to be entered by the Marriage Registrar, indicating the number of the entry of the said copy in the said book, according to the order in which he receives each certificate
The Marriage Registrar shall also add such last-mentioned number of the entry of the copy in the book to the certificate, with his signature or initials, and shall, at the end of every month, send the same to the 22[Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages].
When any marriage between 13[Indian] Christians is solemnized 24[by any such person, Clergyman or Minister of Religion as is referred to in clause (1), clause (2), or clause (3) of section 5], the person solemnizing the same shall, instead of proceeding in the manner provided by section 28 to 36, both inclusive, register the marriage in a separate register-book, and shall keep it safely until it is filled, or, if he leave the district in which he solemnized the marriage before the said book is filled, shall make over the same to the person succeeding to his duties in the said district.
Whoever has the control of the book at the time when it is filled, shall send it to the Marriage Registrar of the district, or, if there be more Marriage Registrars than one, to the Senior Marriage Registrar, who shall send it to the 22[Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages], to be kept by him with the records of his office.