FOREIGN MARRIAGE ACT, 1969
a party to the marriage who is such citizen produces to a Marriage Officer in the country in which the marriage was solemnized—
(z) a copy of the entry in respect of the marriage in the marriage register of that country certified by the appropriate authority in that country to be a true copy of that entry; and
(it) if the copy of that entry is not in the English language, a translation into the prescribed language of that copy; and
(c) the Marriage Officer is satisfied that the copy of the entry in the marriage register is a true copy and that the translation, if any, is a true translation;
the Marriage Officer, upon the payment of the prescribed fee, shall certify
upon the copy that he is satisfied that the copy is a true copy of the entry in the
marriage register and upon the translation that he is satisfied that the
translation is a true translation of the copy and shall issue the copy and the
translation to the said party. .
(2) A document relating to a marriage in a foreign country issued under sub-section (1) shall be admitted in evidence in any proceedings as if it were a certificate duly issued by the appropriate authority of that country.
Objects and Reasons—Clause 24.—Based on its Australian counterpart, certification under this clause is given an evidentiary value, so that a document issued by a Marriage Officer can be admitted as evidence in India.
25. Certified copy of entries to be evidence.—Every certified copy purporting to be signed by the Marriage Officer of an entry of a marriage in the Marriage Certificate Book shall be received in evidence without production or proof of the original.
Objects and Reasons—Clause 25.—This seeks to provide that certified copies of entries in the Marriage Certificate Book shall be evidence.
26. Correction of errors.—(1) Any Marriage Officer who discovers any error in the form or substance of any entry in the Marriage Certificate Book may, within one month next after the discovery of such error, in the presence of the persons married, or, in case of their death or absence, in the presence of two other witnesses, correct the error by entry in the margin without any alteration of the original entry and add thereto the date of such correction.
(2) Every correction made under this section shall be attested by the witnesses in whose presence it was made.
27. Act not to affect validity of marriages outside it.—Nothing in this Act shall in any way affect the validity of a marriage solemnized in a foreign country otherwise than under this Act.
Objects and Reasons—Clause 27.—This clause, saving marriages solemnized under other laws, has been inserted by way of abundant caution.
28. Power to make rules.—(1) The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules1 for carrying out the purposes of this Act.
(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—
1. See Foreign Marriage Rules, 1970.
FOREIGN MARRIAGE ACT, 1969
(a) the duties and powers of Marriage Officers and their districts;
(b) the manner in which a Marriage Officer may hold any inquiry under this Act;
(c) the manner in which notices of marriage shall be published;
(d) the places in which and the hours between which marriages under this Act may be solemnized;
(e) the form and the manner in which any books required by or under this Act to be kept shall be maintained;
(f) the form and manner in which certificates of marriages may be entered under sub-section (5) of section 17;
(g) the fees that may be levied for the performance of any duty imposed upon a Marriage Officer under this Act;
(h) the authorities to which, the form in which and the intervals within which copies of entries in the Marriage Certificate Book shall be sent, and, when corrections are made in the Marriage Certificate Book, the manner in which certificates of such corrections shall be sent to the authorities;
(i) the inspection of any books required to be kept under this Act and the furnishing of certified copies of entries therein;
(f) the manner in which and the conditions subject to which any marriage may be recognised under section 23;
(fc) any other matter which may be, or requires to be, prescribed.
(3) Every rule made under this section shall be laid as soon as may be after it is made before each House of Parliament while it is in session for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or 2[in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid], both Houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.
29. Amendment of Act 43 of 1954.—In the Special Marriage Act, 1954,—
(a) in section 1, in sub-section (2), for the words “outside the said
territories”, the words “in the State of Jammu and Kashmir” shall be
substituted;
(b) in section 2, clauses (a) and (c) shall be omitted; :
(c) in section 3, for sub-section (2), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:—
“(2) For the purposes of this Act, in its application to citizens of India domiciled in the territories to which this Act extends who are in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify such officers of the Central Government as it may think fit to be the Marriage Officers for the State or any part thereof.”;
2. Substituted by Act 20 of 1983, S. 2 and Sch., for “in two successive sessions, and if before the expiry of the session in which it is so laid or the session immediately following” (w.e.f. 15-3-1984).
