Members of Wakf Estate of Prince Golam Mohammed, which takes care of the Tipu Sultan mosques in Kolkata, are mulling legal action against Syed Md Nurur Rahman Barkati — the former imam of the mosque at Esplanade — alleging that he had been illegally registering marriages of couples.
"The marriage register which he maintained at his office is not legal because under normal circumstances, after the nuptials, that paper is supposed to be taken to the court to be registered, following which a separate marriage certificate is issued. Barkati never did so and even now, after he has been expelled, he has opened an office in the Chandni area and still claims to be a marriage registrar. He also introduces himself as the former imam of the Tipu Sultan Masjid," said Shahzada Anwar Ali, the patron manager of the trustee board, adding, "We are in talks with legal experts and intend to steps against him because there are several complications that have risen following his illegal way of marrying couples."
He said that the board received several complaints from couples who had been married by Barkati while he was the imam of the masjid. "In once instance, one person complained to us that the passport office would not accept the marriage certificate issued by Barkati to add his spouse's name to his passport. In another case, a girl who got divorced complained that she was refused any maintenance by her estranged husband because she could not prove that it was a legal marriage," Ali added.
Talking to DNA, Barkati refused to accept that the marriages he was conducting were not legal. "How can he say that the marriages were illegal? Why do I need to get the marriages registered at court? These marriages are according to shariya or the Islamic law where only two witnesses are required to get an adult boy and a girl married," he said.
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