In a decision that flies in the face to his party’s avowed commitment to Muslim women’s rights, the Yogi Adityanath led UP government has passed orders allowing Muslims opting for multiple marriages in UP need to register them separately
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Officials of the state government gave details on this policy decision to the media. Details like date of marriage, venue of the marriage and city need to be filled in the registration form manually and Rs 10 needs to be deposited through online banking as registration fees, the principal secretary Renuka Kumar said.
With this decision, Muslims opting for multiple marriages will have to get them registered separately in Uttar Pradesh and the government guidelines do not in any way interfere with practices of any religion, said a top official of the Women’s Welfare Department in Uttar Pradesh on July 3.
According to a PTI report, Renuka Kumar, the principal secretary to Women Welfare Department said that the UP Marriage Registration Guidelines, 2017 were approved by the Cabinet on August 1 and the Stamp and Registration Department will implement it once it gets a notification.
This decision goes counter to the Modi government’s much hyped concern for Muslim women.
Kumar was keen to point out that the guidelines “do not interfere” in practices of “any religion”. He said, “The UP government does not intend to interfere in the practices of any religion. If any male Muslim is going to register his marriage, then he will have the option of registering a maximum of four marriages. For this, he has to fill different registration forms.”
Qualifying the move, howe4ver, she added that Muslims opting to marry more than once will have to get each marriage registered separately. “But, if any Muslim male has married more than once, then he has to register each of his marriage. Males from the Muslim community will get the facility of registering four marriages, but Hindus and people practicing other religions will be allowed to register only one marriage,” Kumar said. Registering a marriage henceforth will not need the services of a lawyer, she added.
“A person can register his/her marriage from home simply at the click of a mouse by visiting the website of Stamp and Registration department. The husband and wife after visiting the webpage of the Stamp and Registration department will provide their Aadhaar number. Then an OTP (One-Time Password) will be sent to the registered mobile number. As soon as the OTP is entered on the webpage, all the details (including photographs of the husband and wife) from the Aadhaar card will be auto-filled. There will be no need to provide a copy of the wedding invitation card or marriage photograph,” she said.
Details like date of marriage, venue of the marriage and city need to be filled in the registration form manually and Rs 10 needs to be deposited through online banking as registration fees. If the marriage is registered within a year of marriage, then Rs 10 will be levied as registration charges, the principal secretary added. After this, the marriage will be considered as registered, and a reference number will be given. The marriage certificate can be obtained on one’s personal email id or can be downloaded from any cyber cafe, she said, adding only the reference number has to be remembered.
Further explaining the UP Marriage Registration Guidelines, Ms Kumar also spoke on the benefits of registering a marriage. “This will come handy during application of visas while going to foreign countries. Many government schemes also seek the matrimonial status of both men and women. In government application forms and other documents, where the marital status is asked, the person has to only provide the reference number, from where rest of the information can be retrieved by the government,” she said.
Earlier in the week, Muslim organisations in Uttar Pradesh has welcomed the decision of the state cabinet to making registration of all marriages, including the Nikaah taking place in the state, mandatory.
Winning Muslims over through patriarchical moves, Mr Adityanath?