Soney Titus vs The Sub Registrar on 23 October, 2007

       

  

  

 
 
  IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM

WP(C) No. 22938 of 2007(E)


1. SONEY TITUS, AGED 36 YEARS,
                      ...  Petitioner
2. BEENA SONEY, AGED 31 YEARS,

                        Vs



1. THE SUB REGISTRAR,
                       ...       Respondent

2. THE STATE OF KERALA,

                For Petitioner  :SRI.V.PHILIP MATHEW

                For Respondent  :GOVERNMENT PLEADER

The Hon'ble MR. Justice ANTONY DOMINIC

 Dated :23/10/2007

 O R D E R
                   ANTONY DOMINIC, J.

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              W.P.(C) No. 22938 OF 2007 E
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           Dated this the 23rd October, 2007

                    J U D G M E N T

The prayer in this writ petition is to permit the

2nd petitioner to sign the marriage certificate as

provided in Section 16 of the Special Marriage Act,

1954 through her power of attorney and further to

direct the respondents to issue marriage certificate on

that basis. A Division Bench of this Court has has

already held in Deepak Krishna v. District Registrar

{2007 (3) KLT 570} and Vipin V. Rajan v. Sub Registrar

{ILR 2007 (3) Kerala 452} that the notice period

mentioned in Sections 15 and 16 cannot be dispensed

with.

2. Now the prayer made by the petitioners is that

on account of their pre-occupation abroad they cannot

wait to sign the register as required under Section 16.

If the prayer made by the petitioner is allowed, that

is virtually permitting them to get over the rigor of

Section 16 which provides that after the notice period

W.P.(C) No. 22938 OF 2007 2

“the party” shall sign the marriage register. Signing

the marriage register is not a matter of mere

procedure, but is a solemn duty of the parties to the

marriage. For this the parties to the marriage

themselves should be present and an agent cannot be

permitted to sign the marriage register. Therefore the

prayer cannot be granted. However, once signatures are

put by the respective parties themselves, collection of

certificates can be done by authorised agents and there

should not be any impediment in that. This, if the

petitioners so desire, can be allowed on an appropriate

application made to the marriage officer.

Writ petition fails and is disposed of.

ANTONY DOMINIC
JUDGE
jan/-