DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 229
- HINDU MARRIAGES VALIDITY BILL
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava (East Punjab : General): I move :
“That the Bill to provide that marriages between Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and their different castes and sub-castes are valid, be referred to a Select Committee consisting of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir, Sardar Hukum Singh, Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, Shri Deshbandhu Gupta, Shrimati G. Durgabai, Shrimati Renuka Ray, Shri Ramnath Goenka, Dr. Bakshi Tek Chand, Lala Achint Ram, Ch. Ranbir Singh, Shri Mahabir Tyagi, and the Mover and that the number of members whose presence shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Committee shall be five.”
Sir, in making this motion, with your permission, I will just state what the present condition of the law is. At present in all matters, Hindus, Sikhs and Jains are bound by the Hindu Law. In regard to marriage today according to the terms of the Hindu Law, a marriage between a man and a woman belonging to different castes is not valid except in Bombay where anuloma marriages are allowed but the pratiloma marriages are not allowed. In Allahabad, Madras and Calcutta, the High Courts have been pleased to hold that even the anuloma marriages are not valid.
As regards persons belonging to different religions, I should say here also the position is very indefinite. According to custom any marriage is allowed which may not be allowed according to the strict principles of the Hindu Law. For instance, in the Punjab even karvari and chandradari marriages are allowed, and though according to strict Hindu Law marriages between members of different Hindu communities are not allowed, by custom in many places such marriages are allowed. For instance, in Nepal such marriages are held to be valid. In the Punjab, which is not a caste-ridden Province, marriages between the Sikhs and Hindus have been held to be valid not by the courts but by the society in general. Their children have been allowed to inherit and they have been treated just as though the marriages have taken place according to law. As between Jains and Hindus previously no marriages used to take place, but at present the pendulum has swung the other way and marriages take place between Jains and Hindus, especially Jain Aggarwals and Hindu Aggarwals, but it is very doubtful if a Jain Aggarwal could marry validly a Shudra or a Brahman. As regards subdivisions and sub-castes also, before the Act of 1946 was passed marriages between sub-divisions of the Hindu community were declared legal in some places and in others illegal.
- C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. I, 11th February 1949, pp. 419-28.