The Supreme Court on Friday declined to accept a certificate issued by the Arya Samaj as proof of marriage, saying issuing such certificates was not the sect’s job but that of the authorities.
A vacation bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna was hearing a petition of a man who has been bail by the Rajasthan High Court in a rape case. The man has been charged with raping a minor girl.
The petitioner’s counsel contended that the prosecutrix in the rape case was a major, married to the accused. The counsel added the marriage was conducted at the Arya Samaj.
The bench, however, said it was not the Samaj’s job to issue marriage certificates and asked the petitioner to produce one issued by the authorities instead.
The bench also refused to interfere with the Rajasthan High Court order denying him bail.
“We have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and find no reason to interfere in the order impugned at this stage. However, after the charges are framed, the petitioner is at liberty to renew his application for bail before the trial Court,” the bench said in its order.
The development comes amidst a pending plea in the SC of the Madhya Bharat Arya Pratinidhi Sabha’, the nodal body of Arya Samaj temples in Madhya Pradesh, which has challenging a December 17, 2021 order of the HC’s Division Bench directing it to solemnise marriage in accordance with the Special Marriage Act, 1954.
The HC order said no one other than the competent authority under the Act, 1954, can issue certificates in such marriages.
Upholding a Single Judge decision, the HC also asked the Samaj to amend its August 2016, guidelines by incorporating the provisions of Sections 5. 6. 7. and 8 of the Special Act.
In its August 2016 guidelines, the Sabha had asked all Arya Samaj temples affiliated to it to comply with the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 while solemnising marriages.
