New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has objected to the Supreme Court%u2019s order asking all states and union territories to introduce legislation within three months to make registration of marriage compulsory in all communities.
A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat on Thursday asked governments to file a compliance report and an affidavit after the deadline. The court passed the order after noting that several states had made registration of marriage compulsory only for Hindus.
Khalid Rashid, member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said the judgment interferes with his community%u2019s personal law. Rashid told CNN-IBN that the community keeps record of weddings and the Supreme Court order was %u201Cunwanted hindrance%u201D.
"Marriages in Islam are a religious affair completely. If registration is made compulsory it will bring unwanted hindrances in the solemnization of nikaahs (marriage), so our request to the court and governments is it should be made voluntary and not compulsory. We ourselves keep records of all marriages at our institutions and we don't think there is any need to compulsory registration, which will bring problems, particularly in villages," he said.
Kamal Farooqi, another member of the Muslim board, said the court's order was not against Islam but wanted certain conditions for its implementation. "The authorities must recognise our qazis and there must not be any pre-condition for marriages to be legalised," he said.
