TN bill to make wedding registration compulsory

CHENNAI: If you are planning to get married anytime soon, don���t forget to include a visit to the registrar of marriages soon after you tie the knot, or exchange rings, as the case may be in your schedule. On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu minister for public works Durai Murugan introduced a Bill in the Assembly to provide for compulsory registration of all marriages in Tamil Nadu.

The bill seeks to give effect to a supreme court ruling in 2006, where it held that the presumption which is available from registration of marriage would be denied to a person whose marriage is not registered. It went on to add that every Indian citizen must register his/her wedding in the state in which it has been solemnised.

Once the bill comes into effect, every marriage performed in the state would need to be registered within 90 days under the proposed Tamil Nadu Registration of Marriages Act, 2009. It includes all marriages (including remarriages) performed by persons belonging to any caste or religion.

Currently, all wedding registrations are done by the Registration Department of the state, which also undertakes registration of a whole lot of other things, including property, birth and death, societies and firms. Under the new Bill, TN proposes to appoint a Registrar General of Marriages for the State of Tamil Nadu, apart from a registrar for each district.