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Recently the Kerala high court observed that it is not possible to relax 30 days mandatory period of notice and also not possible to permit marriage in digital form until the special marriage act is amended. Justice PV Asha made this observation while rejecting a plea by a woman to allow solemnization and registration of her marriage to take place on a digital platform.
The woman stated that on 15.01.2021 she married in a private ceremony, but their request for registration of their marriage was declined based on the fact that they belonged to different religions. They have been notified that under the Special Marriage Act, they have to undergo marriage. After that, they decided to marry under the said act and also got the notice of the intended marriage. The woman then addressed the High Court arguing that she should report right away to Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, for admission to a full-time postgraduate course in the Master of Science and Advanced food safety in the School of Biological Sciences and is thus she cannot wait until the notice period expires. So she requested that the court either relax the notice period or allow her marriage to be solemnized and registered on a digital platform.
The court referred to various provisions of the Special Marriage Act and acknowledged that, in the absence of the actual appearance of the parties to the marriage in the vicinity of the Registration Officer and the witnesses, it would not be possible to observe these procedures digitally. The court observed that: The aforementioned clauses will explain the strict interpretation of the time prescribed for any of the measures leading to the solemnization of marriage and no relaxation can be allowed. Subsequently, the minimum waiting time for notice should be 30 days. The petitioner claims that she desires the marriage to be solemnized after the completion of 30 days, but she requests the marriage to be solemnized on a digital platform. As there is no provision in the Act that allows the same and there is no provision that allows the digital platform procedure. The judge then dismissed the writ petition.
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