Supreme Court directive to states of making rules for registration of Sikh marriages in 4 months welcome move: Sudershan Singh Wazir

Srinagar, Sep 20: An emergency meeting of Sikh United Front J&K along with other various Sikh organisations J&K, was held under the chairmanship of S.Sudershan Singh Wazir in which he welcomed the recent Supreme court judgement which has directed all States and Union Territories to make rules for registration of Sikh/Anand Karaj marriages under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909 (AMA) as amended in 2012, within a period of four months, said a press release.

Wazir held that the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, was enacted to recognize the validity of marriages performed by the Sikh ceremony of Anand Karaj.By the Amendment of 2012, the Parliament inserted Section 6, casting a duty upon the respective State Governments to make rules to facilitate registration of such marriages, while some States and Union Territories have notified rules pursuant to Section 6, several others have not yet done so, resulting in uneven access to a uniform statutory facility intended by the amendment.

While highlighting the secular ethos of the Indian constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, Wazir held that when a general civil marriage registration framework is in place, it must receive applications for registration of marriages solemnized by Anand Karaj on the same footing as other marriages

Wazir urged the J&K government to implement the directions from the Supreme Court regarding the Anand Marriage Act, as J&K has already adopted the Anand Marriage Act, but rules regarding the same have not been framed yet,so the J&K government must frame the rules for the registration of the Anand Marriage Act as soon as possible, it said.