India has also declared that it would have a special law for the Sikhs who have to follow the Hindu law for matrimony.
Till now, Sikhs had to solemnise marriages according to the Hindu law
NEW DELHI: Following in the foot steps of Pakistan government that took the initiative to enact a special law for the solemnisation of marriages in the minority Sikh community there, India has also declared that it would have a special law for the Sikhs who have to follow the Hindu law for matrimony.
Law minister H R Bhardwaj said on Monday that the government has taken note of demands in this regard from various Sikh organisations and “there should not be a problem” in introducing such an Act. “We will bring it soon,” he told Rajya Sabha. The minister also said that the government has no plans to make the registration of Hindu marriages compulsory under the law. The Supreme Court has directed that marriage of all persons should be registered compulsorily in their respective states and the “matter is being carefully examined in its full ramifications.”
A leading member of the Sikh Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee Avtar Singh Makkar said that more than two crore Sikhs in India want a separate law for the registration of marriages in the community. Makkar also stressed the need for the Sikh Marriage Act for India. “It was Pakistan that had first started Punjabi radio programme. We thought that after the (Sikh marriage) Act is implemented in Pakistan, India would follow suite,” he added. Senior lawyer KTS Tulsi, who was a part of the panel of Indian lawyers that drafted the law for Pakistan at Gen Pervez Musharraf’s call, said, “The belated Pakistani enactment is entirely based on the fine principles of the Hindu Marriage”.
During a brief interview with DNA after his return from Lahore, Tulsi had said the law was imperative there considering that Sikh youth in Pakistan were also embracing polygamy, which is an acceptable form of living in certain Muslim countries including Pakistan.
“This resulted in the fast depletion of Sikhs population which is around 25,000 now,” he said.
b_ajay@dnaindia.net
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