Marriage Process Reform

The SC order urging the states to declare, through the implementation of a law within three months, that registration of marriages is compulsory irrespective of religion, is a laudable and progressive verdict. Not many Indians are known to register their marriages due to myriad reasons.One of them pertains to absence of religious sanction for marriage registration. This is a notoriously unhealthy habit, in spite of the fact that the process of marriage registration is an unambiguous one. Untrustworthy, criminal, chauvinistic and morally corrupted elements have taken advantage of the loopholes existing as a result of the presence of Personal Laws and Marriage Acts for various religious communities. The sufferers, who have to bear the brunt of these lacuna, are married women, who get exploited in the name of religion. This declaration by the SC is a welcome relief and a step in the direction of righteousness. India must have a law which unifies the conflicting processes related to the legality of the institution of marriage rather than have divergent practices, which don't portend well for the future of India by encouraging a ghettoised mindset characterised by an unwillingness to reform.