DIGITAL MARRIAGE
COVID19 has brought several challenges for all, many of the people are at work from home, and students are growing with virtual classes, many businesses have gone for online purchase and sales, hotels have gone for taking away and online deliveries. COVID19 has made us adopt the technology in the best way.
As COVID19 has a precaution to keep social distancing, many of the ceremony halls, resorts have been closed and the honorable government has passed a decision of postponing marriage dates to avoid social gatherings. Many of the couples and families before lockdown have fixed the marriage date, all of sudden due to pandemic of COVID19, all the registration of the event has to be canceled or postponed.
But the continuous extension of lockdown has made the families in worry, but after a few times, the government passed a decision that 20-0 person can gather for a ceremony. In India, where these ceremonies are of importance, the use of technology is happily adopted here too. Online marriages are taking place in many parts of India.
The question arises is this marriage valid?
Example 1 : A marriage between X and Y marriage took place when the bride and groom were physically together but the priest was solemnizing marriage online, in situation the marriage will be only valid under Hindu Marriage Act 1955 if the conditions under Section 5 and 7 are fulfilled.
Section 5:
- The parties i.e. Bride & Groom shouldn’t have any of the partners living together at the time of the marriage.
- The parties shouldn’t be of unsound mind, unfit or procreation of child, there shouldn’t be an attack of insanity.
- The Bride should have completed the age of 18years and the groom should have completed the age of 21 years at the time of marriage.
Section 7
The Hindu marriage should solemnize with all the customs and traditions of the Hindu.
In the above example, the marriage can be considered valid when the customs like tying of tali, exchange of garlands, saptapadi are done accordingly. The present case followed all the customs accordingly so it is considered as a valid marriage.
According to Muslim Law, the parties should have attainted puberty, should be of sound mind. The proposal should be accepted by both parties. In the Sunni community of Muslims during the marriage, the parties need the witness which maybe 2 males or one male and one female. The witness must be of sound mind and must be an adult.
The parties shouldn’t be of any blood relationship like mother-son, grandmother-son. There should also be the discussion /presence of dower the amount of money the bride receives from bridegroom /relatives in consideration of the marriage.
Thus marriage can be valid between the parties if it is done with the provisions set above.
Example 2: if X and Y are at different places physically.
In this case, if the conditions of Section 5 can be fulfilled as discussed above but the conditions in Section 7 i.e. tying tali (mangal sutra), exchanging rings and garlands can’t be done as the parties are at a different pace and the marriage is done virtually so according to the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, conditions of Section 7 are not fulfilled so the marriage is not considered as void.
According to the Muslim Law for the same example, the parties surely have completed puberty and are not related to each other by blood relations, acceptance of both is there, the witness is available online, the question of the dower can be considered later after a time.
So according to Muslim Law in the above example, the conditions are fulfilled so the marriage can be considered void but irregular.
Marriages are acceptance of both the parties but certain conditions and rules under the provisions of the act should be fulfilled to make it avoid marriage.
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