• The Centre has objected to a petition seeking to discontinue with the provision of inviting objection from public while applying for marriage registration under the Special Marriage Act (SMA).

• The provision of 30 day public notice was challenged by an inter-faith couple, citing the privacy and security issue.
• Ministry of Law and Justice said that the intention behind the provision in SMA was to “keep adequate safeguards to the interest of various parties involved”.

Gestation period:

• All marriages done under the SMA requires publication of the names of the couple for inviting objections from public for 30 days.
• Within this period, anyone can object to the marriage on the ground that it would contravene one or more of the conditions specified in section 4 of the SMA.
• Some of the conditions include neither party has a spouse living; either of them is of unsound mind, incapable of giving a valid consent; and the man has completed twenty-one years and the woman eighteen years.
• The advocate, who had appeared for the couple, argued that the question with regard to whether either party has a living spouse can arise in other religious marriage also, but they are exempted from 30 days’ notice period.