Contents

1. 1 Registration of Marriages (Common) Rules, 2008

Party office may have the status of a temple in the minds of comrades but getting married there isn't legally valid, Kerala high court said.

A division bench comprising of justices Antony Dominic and Anil K Narendran on Monday held a marriage conducted at the office of CPM as illegal. 

The court's ruling was while considering a habeas corpus petition in which a couple eloped and got married at CPM's local committee office at Nadubhagam in Nedumudi village in Alappuzha.  The petition was filed by Sabu K Eliyas of Pampady in Kottayam alleging that his daughter is under illegal detention of a man from Pandanad West in Chengannur.  

When the high court issued notice to police, additional director general of prosecution K I Abdul Rasheed asked the police to conduct an enquiry. Following this, the daughter and the man appeared before the court on Monday and presented a marriage certificate issued by Nedumudi grama panchayat on February 19. Place of marriage was given as CPM local committee office at Nadubhagam.  

Declining to accept the marriage, the court held, "According to us, the marriage allegedly solemnised on 19.2.2014 between the parties is not legally a valid one."  

Registration of Marriages (Common) Rules, 2008

A marriage to be registered under the Kerala Registration of Marriages (Common) Rules, 2008 should either be solemnised before a marriage officer appointed under any statutory provisions or as per religious rites, the court held.  

"In so far as this case is concerned, the marriage having been solemnised in the CPM local committee office, the requirement of a marriage registered either by the marriage officer or by the religious authority is not satisfied. Therefore, this kind of a marriage should not have been registered under the rules," the judgment said.  

Following the court's ruling, the man's counsel submitted that they will get married as per the Special Marriage Act.  Further, the court asked the registrar of high court to send a copy of the judgment to the secretary of local self government department so as to issue instructions to prevent such illegal marriages. 

"In several cases of this nature, such certificates are being produced before this court to prove marriage between the parties. This situation needs the immediate attention of the authorities concerned so that appropriate instructions could be given to the marriage officers under the rules in order to prevent them from continuing this illegality," the court directed.