HC gives green light for virtual wedding of Indian woman, US man

A Tamil Nadu woman is all set to marry an American national of Indian origin through virtual mode thanks to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court which has given the goahead for the online weddingRight to marry is a fundamental human right and sections 12 and 13 of the Special Marriage Act 1954 should be so construed as to effectuate this right Justice G R Swaminathan held after hearing a writ petitionSection 12 2 of the Act states that the marriage may be solemnized in any form which the parties may choose to adoptIn this case the parties have chosen the online mode Since law has to keep pace with the march of technology the choice of the parties herein very much passes legal musterVasmi Sudharshini P N the petitioner sought a direction to the respondent SubRegistrar Kanyakumari to solemnize her marriage with Rahul L Madhu through video conferenceShe prayed that the wedding should be registered under Special Marriage Act 1954 and a marriage certificate should be issuedThe court directed the SubRegistrar to facilitate the solemnization of the marriage of the writ petitioner with Rahul L Madhu in the presence of three witnesses through virtual modeThe parties to the marriage are very much having the capacity to marriage Justice Swaminathan wrote in the judgment and cited a ruling that held that it is not necessary that both the parties must be Indian citizensTherefore I hold that there is no legal impediment whatsoever for solemnizing the marriageThe petitioner is having power of attorney from Rahul L Madhu After the marriage is solemnized the petitioner can affix her signature in the marriage certificate book both for herself and on behalf of Rahul L Madhu Thereupon the certificate of marriage shall be issued under Section 13 of the Act by the respondentSudharshini a resident of Kanyakumari and Rahul Madhu who is an American national fell in love The duo wanted to get married and Rahul visited IndiaOn May 5 2022 he submitted a joint application along with the petitioner to the Sub Registrar under the Special Marriage Act After a notice was published objections were received from Rahuls father and another personThe marriage officer came to the conclusion that the objections are not reasonable The mandatory 30 days period expired on June 12 2022The parties appeared before the SubRegistrar the following day However for reasons not quite discernible the respondent did not facilitate the solemnization of marriage the court saidRahul could not wait further as he had to return owing to visa requirements The duo prayed that they should be allowed to solemnize their marriage under Section 12 of the Act even though the bride is in India and the bridegroom is in AmericaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever