What Are Your Legal Rights Under The Special Marriage Act?

One essential aspect of Indian law that provides legal options to couples who wish to marry against their own religious tenets is the Special Marriage Act of 1954. It is a non-religious doctrine that governs civil marriages, allowing individuals of different conversions and ethnicities to marry without the requirement of changing their partner’s religion.  

Special Marriage Act: About

The Special Marriage Act was pass to establish a uniform legal process for civil marriage registration in India. Since it is a secular law, it is unaffecte by personal laws based on religion or custom. Couples who want to get marry under this Act don’t have to practice any specific religion. The Act likewise covers Indian nationals residing overseas.

The Act serves two purposes:

• to establish a legal foundation for interfaith and inter-caste marriage registration.
• to give weddings that do not follow religious customs legal protection and legitimacy.

Special Marriage Act: Conditions

Under the Special Marriage Act, a marriage cannot be solemnize unless certain requirements are fulfill:

• The bride and groom must both be at least 18 years old, respectively.
• To provide legitimate consent, both parties must be of sound mind.
• At the moment of marriage, neither partner should be marry to another person.
• Unless the custom governing at least one of them allows it, the couple should not be in one of the degrees of prohibited relationships as described by the Act.

Special Marriage Act: Marriage Registration Procedure

• Notice of Intended Marriage: The couple planning to get marry must notify the district’s marriage officer in writing of their desire to do so. The Marriage Registrar’s office then posts this notice on a notice board for 30 days.
• Opposition to Marriage: Any person may effectuate an objection to a proposed marriage within this period of thirty days. In the absence of any objections, the marriage may proceed. Where any such objections are raise, the Marriage Officer must entertain these objections and determine their legitimacy. 
• Solemnization of marriage: After the 30-day notification period is lapse and all objections have been resolve, three witnesses and the society’s marriage officer perform a marriage ceremony.
• Marriage Certificate: Confirmation of marriage together with the marriage certificate is present to the couple attached as legal proof of their marriage.

Legal Rights under the Special Marriage Act

• Acknowledgment of Marriage Rights: The law treats marriage in all its forms irrespective of the caste, creed, or gender of the couple about registration under the Special Marriage Act. A legal acknowledgment ensures the protection of the couple’s rights to custody, maintenance of children, and inheritance issues.
• Alimony and Maintenance Rights: In the case of separation or divorce, a spouse may claim maintenance, or alimony, as the other spouse does under the Act. Maintenance may be provided to the dependent spouse according to the financial needs of the dependent spouse and the financial capability of the other spouse. Alimony is intend to help the less wealthy spouse maintain a level of living that is similar to what was experience during the marriage.
• Rights of Inheritance: The legislation extends the right to inherit to both spouses in a marriage and to their children. Even children born within marriages of a Special Marriage Act should be confer with this legal right of inheritance, as they are legal children and deserve their fair share of their parents’ estates. This assists especially when a spouse or both are from a group of people who do not allow their customs children born out of caste or religious marriages inheritance rights under their laws. 
• Divorce Right: Divorce rights as well as divorce processes of the Special Marriage Act, such as ‘mutual divorce’, ‘cruelty divorce’, ‘adultery divorce’, ‘desertion divorce’, ‘insanity’, and ‘divorce after the spouse living abroad’ are also include in the Act. 
• Child’s Rights: In the event of dissolution of marriage or judicial separation, custodial care of the children is based on the paramount concern for the welfare of the children. Others are the child’s age, the child’s emotional requirements, and which parent has the best potential financial and physical means to take care of the child among other aspects, Court consideration before granting custody. The Act safeguards the rights of both parents to apply for custody.
• Protection from Dowry and Related Violence: Women and couples in particular are protect from any kind of abuse that relates to the payment of dowry under the Special Marriage Act. Since the act allows for marriage outside certain cultural practices, the provision of dowry which is highly adhere to in some religious marriage ceremonies is avail to some extent. Such acts are further prohibit by violations of other laws enact in India, including the Dowry Prohibition act of 1961 which also covers weddings forge under the Special Marriage Act.
• Requesting Decree of Separation: An endorsement of the behavior of two people that allows them to stay separately without the need to break their marriage is judicial separation. Within the Act, this too may be request on the same general of divorce and, if attempts at the reinstatement of the relationship have fail, can be seen as a step towards seeking a divorce.

One can talk to a lawyer from Lead India for any kind of legal support. In India, free legal advice online can be obtain at Lead India. Along with receiving free legal advice online, one can also ask questions to the experts online for free through Lead India.