Context: The Allahabad high Court, while issuing an order in a habeas corpus writ petition recently, said it is disturbing that one should change one's faith just for the sake of matrimony when two persons professing different religions can marry under Special Marriage Act which is ‘one of the earliest endeavours towards Uniform Civil Code. The order has come days after another HC judge had observed in another case that religious conversion just for the sake of marriage was not acceptable.  The court made the comments after finding that a Muslim woman had converted to Hinduism, and a month later married as per Hindu rituals. Meanwhile, four states MP, UP, Haryana and Karnataka are considering bringing a legislation to deal with cases of “love jihad”.
Issue of conversion

• Issue of conversion on the name of marriages have been increased in India and it goes beyond the social issue.
• People are not aware of the special marriage act also and do not know the significance of the act.
• Conversions can create law and order issues if they are not of a free will.
• Though it revolved around individuals but ultimately it affects the central question of demographics.

About Special Marriage Act

• It deals with inter-caste and inter-religion marriages. Inter caste marriage is a marriage between people of two different castes.

Applicability

• This information is the most important for every Indian to know how they can use it. This Act includes Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists marriages. This act applies to all Indian states, except Jammu & Kashmir. This Act applies not only to Indian citizens who belong to different castes and religions but also to Indian nationals who live abroad.

Conditions for Marriage

• For this special form of marriage, the conditions that must be followed are not very different from the requirements of other normal marriages that happen within the caste.

These are the conditions to qualify for a marriage under this Act:

• The bridegroom must be at least 21, and at the time of the marriage, the bride must be at least 18 years of age. This is the minimum age limit respectively for a boy/girl to marry. 
• At the time of their marriage, both parties must be monogamous; i.e., they must be unmarried and at that time should not have any living spouse. 
• In order to be able to decide for themselves, the parties should be mentally fit, i.e., they must be sane at the time of marriage.
• They should not be related to themselves through blood relationships; i.e. they should not be subjected to prohibited relationships that otherwise act as a ground for dissolving their marriage. 

Procedure mentioned

• The SMA prescribes an elaborate procedure to get the marriage registered.
• One of the parties to the marriage has to give a notice of the intended marriage to the marriage officer of the district where at least one of the parties to the marriage has resided for at least 30 days immediately prior to the date on which such notice is given.
• Such notice is then entered in the marriage notice book and the marriage officer publishes a notice of marriage at some conspicuous place in his office.
• The notice of marriage published by the marriage officer includes details of the parties like names, date of birth, age, occupation, parents’ names and details, address, pin code, identity information, phone number etc.
• Anybody can then raise objections to the marriage on various grounds provided under the Act. If no objection is raised within the 30 day period, then marriage can be solemnized. If objections are raised, then the marriage officer has to inquire into the objections after which he will decide whether or not to solemnize the marriage.

What are the controversial provisions? Why they should be struck down?

• Section 5 of the (Act) requires that a notice of intended marriage to be given by the parties to the marriage to the Marriage Officer of the district where at least one of the parties to the marriage has resided for a period of not less than thirty days immediately preceding the date on which such notice is given.
• Section 6 mandates that all such notices received shall be entered in the marriage notice book and the Marriage Officer shall publish a notice by affixing a copy thereof to some conspicuous place in his office,
• Sections6(2) and 6(3): The provisions under the Act require parties to an intended marriage to publish their private details for public scrutiny 30 days prior to the intended marriage.
• This provision violates the right to privacy of the parties. The right to privacy is held to be an aspect of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• The requirement is also in violation of right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution since no other laws prescribe such a requirement.

Road Ahead

• Religion today has gone well beyond just faith in the almighty and that is something we should seriously look at and consider. The special marriage act addresses the issue of inter-cast and inter-religious marriages but does not look at punishment for forced conversion. The special marriage act is over sixty years old and it needs to be abreast with the time. The time is right to bring in uniform Civil court we need to have wider consultation with all the stakeholders and then bring the uniform civil code.