Gujarat MLAs, both from the BJP and the Congress on March 17, have urged that parents’ signatures be required for the registration of ‘love marriages’ and that the paperwork be recorded in the same taluka where the couple would reside.
Fatehsinh Chauhan, a legislator for the BJP from Kalol, stated that registering marriages in which a girl marries the man of her choice without parental consent increases the state’s crime rate. “Marriages solemnized without parental consent contribute to the state’s crime rate; if similar marriages were registered with parental consent, the state’s crime rate would decrease by fifty percent.
Times of India cited him as saying that court weddings are not registered in their appropriate districts but in other districts. He urged the Government to change the existing rules and make parental approval mandatory for court marriages.
In a number of instances in Kalol, girls have been lured and abducted by antisocials. He argued that such an amendment is necessary to save them. A Congress MLA from Vav, Geni Thakore, stated that the demand for adequate changes to the law regarding love marriages in the Hindu Marriage Act has been raised for some time and that while leaders are not against love marriages in general; they want to ensure that girls in the future do not face harassment.
“We are not against love marriage, but we do want to ensure that no boys with criminal pasts or who are unable to find girls for marriage do entice and marry girls, as this leads to the victimization of the female,” she said.
She also urged that the marriage procession come to the girl’s house, as is customary, and that a rule be inserted into the Act mandating that the marriage registration be seen by members of the girl’s family in the taluka where she resides. In the meantime, law minister Rushikesh Patel abstained from commenting on the MLAs’ requests.
Last year, members of the Patidar community in Gujarat demanded that the State Government add to the existing Hindu Marriage Act clauses requiring the signature of both parents on marriage registration forms in cases of love marriages.
In an effort to combat “Love Jihad” and instances in which women from the Hindu community are lured and targeted for the property possessed by their families, the community raised its voice in the recent past.
In June 2022, R P Patel, president of Vishva Umiya Dham and convener of the Patidar Organisation Co-ordination Committee, an umbrella organisation including 18 distinct Patidar groups such as Khodaldham and Samast Patidar Samaj, made the demand.
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