{"id":22996,"date":"2024-05-02T05:58:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T00:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=22996"},"modified":"2025-04-06T23:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T17:59:20","slug":"hindu-marriage-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/hindu-marriage-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Marriage Act, 1955"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA Act)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It <strong>codifies<\/strong> the <strong>law relating to marriage among Hindus<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It not only <strong>provides for<\/strong> the <strong>ceremonies and registration<\/strong> for Hindu marriage but also lays down rules regarding<strong> Divorce.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Salient Features:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A <strong>Hindu by birth or by conversion<\/strong> is the subject of the HMA<strong> Act<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The definition of Hindu under the HMA Act <strong>includes Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh<\/strong> as well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Marriageable age<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>bridegroom<\/strong> must be at <strong>least 21 years old,<\/strong> and the <strong>bride<\/strong> must be at <strong>least 18 years old<\/strong> when they get married.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Marriage among minors is punishable<\/strong> with imprisonment upto 3 years and\/or fine upto Rs 1 lakh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Significance of ceremonies:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Customary practices<\/strong> (customs\/ long-term usages (Reeti-Riwaz)) are well <strong>respected under<\/strong> the <strong>HMA Act<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Saptapadi<\/strong>, i.e., steps taken by the bride and groom before holy fire, is a <strong>necessary ritual for marriage<\/strong> among Hindus.<\/li>\n<li>However, marriage <strong>ceremonies are subject to customs<\/strong> and accepted accordingly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Forbidding bigamy:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It also brought an <strong>end to<\/strong> the customary practice of <strong>bigamy, polygamy, or polyandry<\/strong>, i.e, multiple marriages.<\/li>\n<li>Section 5 of the Act specifies that<strong> it is illegal to have two living wives at once,<\/strong> which is known as bigamy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If one spouse is alive<\/strong> and <strong>the person remarries<\/strong>, such marriage is not only void, but the person is also <strong>punishable under<\/strong> Sections 494 and 495 of the <strong>Indian Penal Code, 1860.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Focus on mental stability:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A marriage is considered <strong>null and void if anyone one<\/strong> or both the people <strong>get married being mentally unfit<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In such cases<\/strong>, the couple <strong>must get legal consent <\/strong>before getting married.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Registration<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Registration<\/strong> of a Hindu marriage is <strong>subject to laws<\/strong> applicable<strong> in particular states.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>However, a marriage is <strong>not invalid<\/strong> or illegal <strong>due to lack of an official certificate.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Divorce<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>The Act also <strong>allows divorce through mutual consent.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Although parties are <strong>legally not allowed <\/strong>to seek <strong>divorce within 1 year<\/strong> of marriage, they <strong>can go for judicial separation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>However, divorce <strong>may be granted before<\/strong> completion of <strong>1 year in special circumstances<\/strong> of exceptional hardship.<\/li>\n<li>It provides for the <strong>various grounds <\/strong>on the basis of which, <strong>divorce can be granted<\/strong> to one of the spouses <strong>if another does not agree to separate<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>There are <strong>special grounds<\/strong> which specifically allow the<strong> wife to seek divorce<\/strong> from her husband.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Restitution of conjugal rights:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Unlike any other matrimonial laws in India, the HMA Act also contains <strong>provisions for restitution of conjugal rights<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>So, <strong>if one of the spouses leaves<\/strong> the other <strong>without any reasonable excuse<\/strong>, the other spouse <strong>may reach the courtto restore<\/strong> their <strong>matrimonial relations<\/strong> and <strong>bring back the spouse<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Legal Procedures:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Matters of Hindu marriages<\/strong> and divorce <strong>follow procedure in family court<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li>Matters under the Act are <strong>taken up by the courts of territorial jurisdiction<\/strong> (city\/ town) <strong>where the marriage was celebrated<\/strong>, <strong>where one of the parties resides,<\/strong> or <strong>where the husband and wife last resided together<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is the Indian Penal Code, 1860?<\/h3>\n<p>The Indian Penal Code is the official criminal code of India, which was drafted way back in 1860. It\u2019s objective is to provide a general penal code for the country. It has 511 sections across 23 chapters, providing the list of crimes along with their definitions and punishments. The IPC has been amended several times and is now supplemented by other Acts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deccanherald.com\/india\/supreme-court-says-mere-registration-in-absence-of-ceremony-not-a-valid-marriage-under-hindu-marriage-act-3002652\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Supreme Court says mere registration in absence of ceremony not a valid marriage under Hindu Marriage Act<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 codifies the law relating to marriage among Hindus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}