The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has observed that merely producing a marriage certificate issued by an Arya Samaj mandir cannot establish that a valid marriage was solemnised under the Hindu Marriage Act.
The court said that the essential ceremonies prescribed for a Hindu marriage must be performed.
The court made the observation while quashing the officer’s removal. He was removed from service on the ground that he had made a false declaration about his marital status when joining the service. The court noted that the controversy essentially revolved around the complaint that Pandey had married the woman at an Arya Samaj mandir.
Justice Rejeev Singh passed the judgement on September 18 on a petition filed by Rohit Pandey, an officer of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) of Pratapgarh district, challenging his removal order.
The court observed that under the Hindu Marriage Act, a marriage is valid only when it is performed with the essential ceremonies of Hindu rituals and “saptpadi’.
The petitioner had argued that there was no evidence of a valid marriage according to Hindu rituals and that the woman herself had admitted during the trial of a criminal case that the marriage had not been solemnised according to Hindu rituals and “saptpadi”. (Saptapadi is a ritual in a traditional Hindu wedding, where the bride and groom take seven steps together around a consecrated fire). The court noted that the complainant herself had stated during the trial that the marriage had not been solemnized according to Hindu rituals. The high court held that, in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Priya Bala Ghosh, the alleged 2007 marriage “cannot be held to be a marriage in the eyes of law”. Consequently, it could not be treated as a ground for holding Pandey unsuitable for service, the high court said.
