{"id":84480,"date":"2026-01-28T16:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=84480"},"modified":"2026-01-28T16:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:08:28","slug":"sapinda-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sapinda-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Sapinda Marriage, Meaning, Constitutional Validity, Exceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sapinda Marriage<\/b><\/h2>\n

A sapinda marriage is a marriage between closely related individuals. For example, a man marrying his father\u2019s brother\u2019s daughter (i.e., his first cousin) is a sapinda marriage.<\/p>\n

As per section 3 of Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), \u201cTwo persons are said to be sapindas of each other if one is a lineal ascendant (it means son, grandson) of the other, or if they have a common lineal ascendant who is within the limits of sapinda relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Constitutional Validity of Sapinda Marriages\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

Sapinda marriages are void by the Section 5(v) of the Hindu Marriage Act<\/strong><\/a>. Marriage is forbidden within three generations on Mother\u2019s side. For Example, marriage between siblings, their parents, their grandparents. On Father\u2019s Side, it extends to five generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Exceptions<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Under Hindu Marriage Act, Sapinda Marriage is valid if the custom of each individual permits sapinda marriages.<\/p>\n

The definition of the word \u201ccustom\u201d is provided in Section 3(a) of the Hindu Marriage Act. As per the law, a custom must be continuously and uniformly observed for a long period to gain legitimacy among Hindu.<\/p>\n

As per the Supreme Court in Thakur Gokal Chand v. Parvin Kumari (1952) customs should not be unreasonable or opposed to public policy. In the case of a rule that is applicable only to a certain family, the rule should not have been \u201cdiscontinued by that family\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recent Supreme Court Judgements<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Recently in Neetu Grover v. Union of India & Ors, 2024 case Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of Section 5(v) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA), which prohibits marriage between two Hindus if they are \u201cSapindas\u201d of each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Status of Sapinda Marriages in other Countries\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

In many countries, marriages within close blood relations – comparable to sapinda marriages under Hindu law – are regulated differently based on social, religious, and medical considerations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In most Western countries such as the <\/span>United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and much of Europe, <\/b>marriages between lineal relatives and siblings are strictly prohibited, while first-cousin marriages are either allowed or regulated at the state level, reflecting a more liberal approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>In contrast, <\/span>several West Asian and North African countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Egypt,<\/b> legally permit consanguineous marriages, particularly first-cousin marriages, as they are socially and culturally accepted. Similarly, <\/span>in Japan and South Korea, <\/b>marriages between certain cousins are legally permissible.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sapinda marriage under Hindu law explained with meaning, prohibited degrees, constitutional validity, exceptions based on custom, and recent Supreme Court judgments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":84457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[4975],"class_list":{"0":"post-84480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-sapinda-marriage","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84480","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}