Church leaders welcome order of SC to make registration of all marriages mandatory

On October 25, the Supreme Court ordered all the states in India to mandate the registration of marriages conducted by any religious community.

Three months has been given by the Supreme Court to enact the necessary legislations so that all communities would be required to register marriages. The states "shall forthwith do it and in no case later than three months from Thursday," ordered the court.

The court found that, even though the registration of marriages have been seriously considered and followed in many Indian states, some states had excluded the minority communities.

“It’s a progressive move. All the Catholic marriages are registered in Church’s marriage register and many of the Christians are already doing civil registration,” said the Archbishop of Bombay and newly appointed Cardinal Oswald Gracias.

Christian leaders have welcomed the move as the registration would make a valid marriage a public document.

The move by the Supreme Court is seen as a strategy to end child marriages largely prevalent in India.