Can Couples Register Their Union Under Special Marriage Act, Even If Both Partners Are Not Indians?

The court was considering a request for marriage registration made by a couple consisting of an American citizen and a Canadian citizen with an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card, based on the Special Marriage Act. The male is a Christian, whereas the woman is a Hindu. Both people live and work in the government centre.

The couple went to the high court last year because, despite having lived in the city for more than six months, they were unable to submit an online application for marriage registration since at least one applicant had to be an Indian citizen.

The couple informed the court that SDM (Defence Colony) refused to accept their application for registration of marriage and that the Delhi Government website prohibits the submission of an online form if at least one party is not an Indian citizen.

‘Special Marriage Act’

According to the Delhi HC in reference to the Special Marriage Act – “Sub-Sections (a), (b), (c) and (d) of Section 4 do not make any reference to citizens. It is only in Sub-Section (e) of Section 4, where the statute requires that in case of marriages solemnised in Jammu and Kashmir, both parties have to be citizens of India,”

The Delhi High Court has held that there is no requirement of “at least one party being a citizen of India” for solemnising and registering a couple’s marriage under the Special Marriage Act provisions. In addition to this, Justice Prathiba of the Delhi HC observed that the law says “any two persons” and not “citizens” can seek solemnisation of their marriage under the Act.

In line with this court instructed the concerned Sub-Divisional Magistrate to handle the petitioner couple’s request for marriage registration in accordance with the established protocol without considering the objection that one of them must be an Indian citizen. The court stated in its order that the Delhi government’s guidelines for marriage registration, which required either the bride or the groom to be Indian citizens, were against the law and previous high court rulings, and it requested a report on the actions taken to alter them appropriately.

Yes. According to the Delhi High Court, since the directives to change the rules to allow foreign nationals to register their marriages were first issued in another case in 2019, a status report outlining compliance must be filed within four weeks; otherwise, a senior official who is aware of the situation must join the proceedings.With Vakilsearch’s assistance, marriage registration may be completed in just three simple steps without any problems or delays as they bring the best legal team to the table.

You must first provide the required documentation to their experts. After assessing the required materials, they will begin the online marriage certificate application procedure. They will also make sure everything runs without a hitch.