The Freethought Party of India (FPI) while hailing the move of the Narendra Modi Government to implement Uniform Civil Code demanded that the disparities in the Special Marriage Act of 1954 and the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 be removed.
The Special Marriage Act of 1954 was enacted when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minster and the Congress was having a huge majority in both the Houses of the Parliament.
This Act is an affront to equality and this Act is also an insult to commonsense. Completing the age of 18, an Indian, whether male or female or of the 3rd gender is considered as an adult and therefore he /she is entitled to vote at elections. But this political equality shamelessly fades away when the question of marriage comes. The bride in question should be 18+; but the bridegroom in question ought to be 21+. This discrepancy is there in the Special Marriage Act of 1954. Why is this inequality between two Indians, between two Indians of different gendersIJ Political leadership across party line is silent on this, so also the Judges of the higher judiciary, said a FPI release.
Another discrepancy for marriage under the Act of 1954 is that one month’s notice has to be mandatorily there with the Marriage Officer for the applicants to marry lawfully. Why the applicants can not marry instantly, that is on the day of the submission of their joint application, it asked.